Is my NIC good enough?

Much obliged to all the input, food for thought.
I have Home Hub 3, 40 metres down the garden in a computer room, I have armour plated cable running along fence (behind hedgerow) to the living room to a TP-Link TL-WR841ND to have hardwired smart TV, also to my Sky On demand box. This really helped also with the wifi increasing by at least 2 bars, but still quite weak in guest bedroom, so would a dual band router in computer room be of any benefit to the guest room? Cabling is Cat 5e.

peter4076 said:

Much obliged to all the input, food for thought.
I have Home Hub 3, 40 metres down the garden in a computer room, I have armour plated cable running along fence (behind hedgerow) to the living room to a TP-Link TL-WR841ND to have hardwired smart TV, also to my Sky On demand box. This really helped also with the wifi increasing by at least 2 bars, but still quite weak in guest bedroom, so would a dual band router in computer room be of any benefit to the guest room? Cabling is Cat 5e.

You haven't mentioned where the guest room is in relation to either (1) the Home Hub 3 modem/router which has both wired and wireless network #1 capability, or (2) the living room where you have the TP-Link TL-WR841ND installed which is also a wired and wireless network #2 router. Are you saying the guest room is far enough away from either the computer room or living room so that it's having wireless connectivity problems to either of your two wireless networks, #1 or #2?

Also, is it not possible to pull another ethernet cable from either the computer room or living room to your guest room, to get wired connectivity there? You specifically want wireless connectivity in the guest room? If you can't pull an ethernet cable to the guest room from either the computer room or living room where you currently have routers, why not go with a pair of "ethernet over powerline adapters" to provide wired ethernet capability to your guest room. You just need a spare wall power socket near either of your two existing routers, and a second free wall power socket in your guest room, and bingo instant wired capability to one of your two routers using the AC power cables in your house. In my experience these work very well, but do depend on the proper electrical copper wiring in the walls and also not using power strips or surge protectors or extension cords but instead plugging directly into wall sockets in order to get directly to the copper wires.

Now, since you've now got wired connectivity in the guest room through these new gizmos, if you also want to provide wireless capability in the guest room you can add a "wireless access point" such as the Netgear WN604. This WN604 WAP unit (which is also a 4-port wired switch as well as a wireless access point) plugs into the wired ethernet connector on the "ethernet over powerline adapter" you just placed in the guest room through one of its four wired ethernet ports. So you now have three remaining available wired ethernet ports on the WN604 for other 10/100 wired connections. But you also now have a third wireless network in your house, centering around that guest room, provided by the WN604.

For higher speed wireless (only) network #3 centered around the guest room, you could consider something like a Netgear WN802. But you'd need to have faster (and thus more expensive) than 10/100 ethernet over powerline adapters to get faster wired connectivity to the guest room, so that the WN802 could take advantage of it in providing 802.11n wireless. Remember, the wired/wireless speed capability originating in the guest room depends on the wired speed you brought to that room through either a true ethernet cable from one of your two routers, or from a pair of ethernet over powerline adapters connecting the guest room to one of your two routers.

I would say you're almost certainly better off "extending" your wired networking capability to the guest room through either running a true ethernet cable there, or using a pair of ethernet over powerline adapters... capable of whatever wired speed you can afford depending on what wired/wireless speed you want to provide in the guest room and adjacent area. Once you have gotten wired connectivity in the guest room, you can now provide wireless network #3 in that area with a WAP of whatever speed capability you want.

I would speculate there's probably no point in initiating some new dual-band wireless network #3 back in your computer room, since I believe 5Ghz wireless actually has less range (but faster speed capability) than the 2.4Ghz wireless currently does. If neither of your existing two wireless networks can reach the guest room, a new dual-band wireless network #3 from the computer room is not going to help.

NOTE: residential wireless access points from vendors such as Netgear, D-Link, etc., have limited range. Wireless speed drops off fairly quickly as a function of distance. Commercial grade WiFi wireless access points use more expensive products from, say, a company like Ubiquiti Networks. They make units that attach to ceilings, etc., and have greater wireless range than home retail products. But even they are still subject to whatever wired speed is in the room with the unit, since they too have to connect wired to the router in order to provide their wireless network.

dsperber:Thank you for the detailed account above, very thorough. I have some ethernet power adapters, but never used them because the computer room and the house are on two different circuits with their own consumer unit, but will try from the TP TL-WR841ND & guest/spare room which is approx 35feet away (20 foot linear & 15 foot vertical) the bedroom would be mainly for tablet/mobile phone use.
If truth be told I started this thread because we have 5 dect phones (1 in computer room & 4 in house, 1 downstairs & 1 in each bedroom) when people rang the house on landline and we took the call in the living room, the caller would comment on how bad the crackling was on our Panasonic phone, but if we walked into the kitchen or hallway, or dining room, crackling ceased (by the by we could not hear any sound other than the caller), so mentioned this to someone down the pub, who pointed out that it was the wifi, and I should invest in a dual band router..........at last my story is told, so just wanted to know if this is the case! as always thank you for your input.