Unknown connection problems
Good day, /r/techsupport. This is my first post here. Normally I try to get by by googling my problems and learning about my computer as I go, but I just don't know what is wrong here. For the record I am running windows 7 (64 bit), SP1, CPU is an i5-3570k @ 3.40GHz. If I am missing anything pertinent please let me know!
I have a desktop PC, and I have always had a hardwired connection to it in the past. However, I have recently moved into an apartment where I have been forced to go wifi; the router is on the complete opposite end of the apt and I can't run wires along the ceilings or anything in here. To adapt to this I bought a cheap (I think ~$40) USB wifi adapter for my PC, it is a Linksys for the record. Anyways, with this adapter I have 'full bars' of connection as indicated by the windows taskbar at all times, yet I am having some issue with my connection. My foremost example is Steam, I have not yet been able to even *update* steam on this PC. The 'updating steam' window opens up and it begins downloading, but I have never been able to get past around 40,000 (out of about 100,000)kb before it starts falling back by 10,000 or so every few seconds. This will go on for about 10 minutes if I let it before displaying an error message (Steam needs to be online to update. Please confirm your network connection and try again) and giving up. I also was trying to download flash player today (just reformatted the PC recently) and it suffered a similar fate; download bar begins, hits 5%, stops and tells me "there has been a connection error, please try again"
What I'm wondering is; is the cheapo wifi adapter I bought the issue here, despite my windows connectivity display showing full bars at all times? I would have no problem going out and dropping a bit more cash on better hardware, but I'm not totally convinced that's the problem. Could my internet service/wifi router be the problem? My room mate and I have no issues console gaming/streaming and downloading/streaming on our phones in the apartment. Thank you for your time kind reddit gurus, any help is greatly appreciated!