Usb WiFi

[LordAsperheim]

Hi guys! Me and my friend are fixing some old compeuters in our school, and we wantet to connect it to internet, so we took a usb wifi adapter from another working pc, and put it in the old compuper but we couldnt connect to internet. So my question is: Do we need to download any drivers¨to get the wifi running? Anyone that can help?

[limegorilla]

Well just check to see if it’s present first. Whatever version of Windows your on (although if it is Vista,XP or newer I would strongly advise using it for security reasons) go to the start menu, and if you have search, search for device manager. You will need admin access. The device should be there, but with an exclamation mark next to it. 

 

To answer your question on drivers, It’s most likely that this is an issue rather than hardware failure, but as this computer was not connected to the internet in the first place it doesn’t have tha ability to get any drivers at all - cause it can’t download them. Go to the manufactures website for more information, the model number should be on the dongle somewhere.

[LordAsperheim]

2 minutes ago, limegorilla said:

Well just check to see if it’s present first. Whatever version of Windows your on (although if it is Vista,XP or newer I would strongly advise using it for security reasons) go to the start menu, and if you have search, search for device manager. You will need admin access. The device should be there, but with an exclamation mark next to it. 

 

To answer your question on drivers, It’s most likely that this is an issue rather than hardware failure, but as this computer was not connected to the internet in the first place it doesn’t have tha ability to get any drivers at all - cause it can’t download them. Go to the manufactures website for more information, the model number should be on the dongle somewhere.

Because when I connected it, it wouldn't connect to the internet. But can't I just download the driver installer on a USB flash drive, and run the setup on the old computer?

[limegorilla]

Just now, LordAsperheim said:

Because when I connected it, it wouldn't connect to the internet. But can't I just download the driver installer on a USB flash drive, and run the setup on the old computer?

Does the computer detect the dongle?

[Enderman]

Yeah, those USB network adapters require drivers which need to be downloaded from the internet, which can't be downloaded if you don't have internet.

Plug the computer into ethernet to connect to the internet, otherwise you will need to manually find the exact drivers for that USB network adapter, put them on a USB using a different computer, then install them from the USB drive.

[LordAsperheim]

1 minute ago, limegorilla said:

Does the computer detect the dongle?

Yes, it detects the usb dongle, but it does not use it as a wifi dongle, if you know what i mean

[LordAsperheim]

2 minutes ago, Enderman said:

Yeah, those USB network adapters require drivers which need to be downloaded from the internet, which can't be downloaded if you don't have internet.

Plug the computer into ethernet to connect to the internet, otherwise you will need to manually find the exact drivers for that USB network adapter, put them on a USB using a different computer, then install them from the USB drive.

That was what i was thinking too. Because we don't have an ethernet cable that reaches the pc. Soi could just go on the dongle's website, and download the drivers?

[Enderman]

Just now, LordAsperheim said:

That was what i was thinking too. Because we don't have an ethernet cable that reaches the pc. Soi could just go on the dongle's website, and download the drivers?

Yeah probably, you just need to find the right one.

I would personally just buy a loner ethernet cable and not deal with USB cards or drivers.

[LordAsperheim]

Just now, Enderman said:

Yeah probably, you just need to find the right one.

I would personally just buy a loner ethernet cable and not deal with USB cards or drivers.

Yeah i know, but this is just a pc that is going to be used like 2/3 days, so we don't want to buy a 100m cat 6 just for ethernet in 2/3 days if i can use the USB Wifi

[SupaKomputa]

1 hour ago, LordAsperheim said:

Hi guys! Me and my friend are fixing some old compeuters in our school, and we wantet to connect it to internet, so we took a usb wifi adapter from another working pc, and put it in the old compuper but we couldnt connect to internet. So my question is: Do we need to download any drivers¨to get the wifi running? Anyone that can help?

Yes, some dongles are not plug and play.

It would be better if you just mention the brand / model number.

[SupaKomputa]

51 minutes ago, LordAsperheim said:

Yeah i know, but this is just a pc that is going to be used like 2/3 days, so we don't want to buy a 100m cat 6 just for ethernet in 2/3 days if i can use the USB Wifi

100m lan cables can buy 3 wifi dongles.

What you can do is, download the right driver in a working pc, copy to usb flash drive and install to the old pc.