since the Cat5e cables in the house we moved into four years ago were damaged by

construction and renovations. Even though we've purchased high end routers that

claim amazing speeds, and even the other year a new Cisco router with AC

capabilities, the main thing that has really improved connectivity has been the

use of a high quality shielded USB 2.0 extension cable (and once Wifi AC has

thoroughly set in, a USB 3.0 cable of the same quality would follow suit).

speeds of 172-225Mbps are able enough for most network traffic, but the

extension really pays itself off when you are far from your router where interference

from your body in the way makes a difference! 

Even though our router is placed close to the ceiling of the basement,

well above the ground, and slightly higher than the cement foundation of the

house, when we connect two floors up in the home office from the desk in the

side of the house, Wifi speeds drop to down to 30Mbps.  At this point, we’re barely higher than the

maximum download speeds and if you are on an encrypted connection to your

servers at work, the connection speed is subject to frequent interruptions or

unbearably slow. That’s when I looked at the pile of USB extension cables I had

lying around from a recent machine rebuild, and the Wifi USB adapter that was

collecting dust since purchase of the router (included in the Cisco Router bundle).  As

most users of a laptop, I had pre-determined that the internal Wifi adapter was

presumably good enough – indeed I was most incorrect.  

adapter to my laptop, and extending in the direction of the router across the

desk and dangling down to the floor, connectivity speeds increased to between 72-98Mbps (at least two and half times

the speed). At this point, the flaky VPN connectivity to servers went

away.  I also made sure to extend the

cable away from anything that would cause interference – and I would suggest

moving around the final location of the UBS adapter at the end of the extension

to find your respective sweet spot for the communication to the router.