Today surfing from devices with Wi-Fi connectivity has become very common. In fact we can say that most of the connections are wireless. We use mobile phones, tablets, televisions, electronic books … A large number of computers that allow us to surf the Internet and make use of services connected to the network, without having to plug in anything additional. Now, we must also take into account the cable option, especially when we use a computer and we want stability and speed to be the best possible. In this article we will explain how to connect a computer to the Internet by cable if it does not have an Ethernet port .
How to connect a wired computer without an Ethernet port
We can say that the normal thing is that a computer has a network card with an Ethernet port. This is something that, in general, is present in both desktops and laptops. However, the latter and especially in recent years, do not always have this port in mind.
It occurs very frequently in small laptops , which seek to minimize weight and size as much as possible. The improvement of Wi-Fi connections also allows greater freedom in this regard and some brands choose to launch their computers without a port to connect a LAN cable and have Internet.
Regardless of whether this makes more or less sense today, the truth is that many users find that they cannot connect their laptop via cable to the router . This can be very negative if, for example, we have a wired installation in our home and from the room where we are going to connect, the wireless coverage is weak. It could also happen that the wireless network card of that laptop is not powerful and we cannot have a good speed.
For all this, users are looking for a way to connect an Ethernet cable to this type of computer that does not have an RJ45 port. Luckily all is not lost and we will have the option to do so.
USB Hub Ethernet
A very interesting option that we have available is to acquire an Ethernet USB Hub. It consists of a small device that connects to the USB port of the computer and offers several more ports to connect other equipment, in addition to an Ethernet port.
In this way, thanks to this device we will not only be able to connect the computer to the Internet by cable, but we will not do without a USB port and we will even have several more available. It is very useful since in many cases smaller computers only have one or two USB ports.
These devices offer speeds of up to 1 Gbps , so we can make the most of the available speed. They are usually Plug and Play, so they are compatible with the different versions of the main operating systems and do not require installing anything else.
The price is cheap. We can find it from € 13-16 to something more, depending on the type of device. There are some more complete ones that also act as card readers and have more features.
USB to Ethernet adapter
In this case we are facing a device similar to the previous one, but it only converts a USB port into an Ethernet one . It will also allow us to achieve our goal of connecting the computer to the Internet by cable.
This adapter is slightly cheaper than the previous one. It is simpler and therefore it is also reflected in the price. Here we must bear in mind the importance of opting for adapters that work over USB 3.0 and not just USB 2.0 .
If we choose an adapter that is only compatible with USB 2.0 we will be limiting the speed to Fast Ethernet, that is, to 100 Mbps. On the other hand, if we connect via USB 3.0 we will be able to achieve the maximum speed of 1 Gbps.
In short, when we find a computer that does not have an Ethernet port natively, we can always look for alternatives to be able to connect by cable. These inexpensive devices will allow us to use an Ethernet cable and thus have more stability, as well as speed, compared to browsing from a Wi-Fi network.