Cheap Wifi Dongles and Wireless Adapters at Argos, Currys and Ebuyer

When shopping for a cheap Wifi dongle, or a wireless adapter it's worth knowing a bit about them to help you get the best one that's right for you. You'll want the best USB network adapter that's works with whatever device you'll be using it on. Whether that will be a phone, laptop or a tablet. So let's take a look at the features to look out for.

Distance This means how far away from the wifi dongle or wireless adapter you can be and still get a good working level of connectivity. Up until 2013 2.4 GHz was the only frequency you could get a dongle on, but since then they are now available at 5 GHz. Basically the higher the frequency, the shorter range of the dongle, but less people will be using the 5 GHz wifi dongles. More people use a 2.4 GHz dongle and this slows down the speed. If you live in the city and want to get a cheap wifi dongle then we'd recommend getting a 5 GHz one as less people will have one at this frequency so it will be quicker. If you live in a less populated area then a 2.4 GHz one would be better as you don't need to be as close to the wireless adapter to use it.

You can also get duel band wireless adapters, these can work at both 5 GHz and 2.4 GHz. Perfect for those moving about a bit. These are as cheap as single band though, the reason for these is pretty obvious.

Brands Some of the best known network hardware brands have a really good range of cheap wireless adapters. D-Link and Belkin are 2 very well known makes of cheap wifi dongles and we feel these offer some of the best value for money in this area. eBuyer have some good stock of low priced ones, not just for these top brands, but others too. Curry's also have some good sales on Netgear wifi dongles. They also have a great sale on a BT duel band wireless adapter that's very well rated.

Mbps Mbps, or MegaBytes Per Second as it stands for isn't something we want to get to technical in. But it's worth knowing what Mbps you'll need for the level of use you want out of it.

• 0.5 - 2 Mbps. This isn't really worth getting. Plus you can't really get them this low these days anyway. This range is good for basic email checking and messaging.
• 4 - 5 Mbps. This is for web browse and basic short video streaming, i.e. youtube>
• 20+ Mbps. This will allow HD video streaming.
• 50+ Mbps. Pretty much anything you can do on a good wifi network can be done with a 50 Mbps wifi dongle.

Power Most wierless adaptors and wifi dongles plug in to the USB port on your laptop and draw power from that. So you may want to look for a low power wifi dongle if the power supply on your laptop isn't great, or if you are using it out and about for long periods without the option of charging it up.

Set-Up Most wifi dongles are fairly easy to set up. They may have some interface software that will need installing, but this is often an easy job. Some can get a little tricky. It's worth checking out some independent reviews to see if there's any mention of this on any that you're looking at.

In short, wifi dongles and wireless adapters are a pretty cheap item and if you follow this guide and get the one that suits you the best then we're sure that you'll have no issues and you'll be surfing the web on it in no time at all.

Great Deals on Cheap Wireless adapters and Wifi Dongles

Since wifi dongles are a fairly cheap item anyway, it makes it pretty easy to get good deals on them. Currys, Argos and eBuyer are some of the best stores to look at for great sales on wireless adapter and low prices on wifi dongles.

That being said, it's still worth looking around for some deals and save as much money as possible. eBuyer seems to be offering some good savings on them at the minute. This does swap and change though, but we'd recommend checking them out first. They also have some of the biggest choices too.