Trying to use a TP-Link Wi-Fi USB dongle with a Win7 desktop that doesn't have Wi-Fi.
Software shows all my neighbour's signals - but not either of mine. Phone beside the PC shows excellent strength. Moved the desktop to the same room as my laptop which works fine - same thing.
System is BT infinity. Never had a problem getting any other WiFi device to connect to it.
do the dongle and your router have a frequency (2.4GHz or 5GHz) in common?
do you need a driver in the Win7 machine to make it work?
Is your router set to broadcast its SSID?
+1
Dave. The dongle may (only) be the older 2.4GHz band whereas your router may be set to only use the 5Ghz band (hence why it isn't seen).
If you look at the router config (probably in the 'advanced' section) you should see mention of such.
Cheers, T i m
So this is one of those sticks plugged into the usb is it? Could it be that it does not support the new bands used for wifi? I found this with an old netgear stick I found. It will see my old router but a new one, no, at least not until I fiddled with the settings to make it operate at the lower frequencies. Bah humbug. When did life get so complicated? Brian
Normally Windows 7 is pretty good at finding these on itself or it will have a moan and you might need to connect it by wire just to download the drivers, but if its seeing other networks my money is on the band issue. Brian
Your dongle is obviously extreme right wing and is suffering from cognitive dissonance.
My recollection is that BT routers use both bands when initially set up, but there's probably a facility to turn one off.
I have a TPLink dongle TL-WN321G that works fine on W10. Would you care to share which one you're using, Dave?
Did Dave get the message from Windows about a new device being plugged in ?.
Does it show up in the list of devices in control panel->device mgr ?
He did say that it "shows all my neighbour's signals".
To avoid replying to multiple posts:-
It's a TP-Link Model Archer T1U. Says 5 Ghz 433 Mbps.
Was bought some 20 months ago from PC world - but not used.
I've not really altered any setting on my BT router. Next door - that it is seeing a signal from - has BT infinity too.
It was installed using the supplied CD - for driver and software.
This morning, with it in the same room as my laptop, it was showing only one available and at poor signal strength. My laptop was showing 11...
Went out and bought a new one. That's working fine.
Of course I've lost the receipt. Their website wants you to use a premium rate phone line for any warranty claims (says it has a three year warranty). So into the bin it will go.
what about the WEEEEEEE....... regulations?
There are some very handy apps for mobile phones which will tell you what devices are transmitting in the area. Often a damn site easier to use than trying to work out what is happening from routers and computers.
Don't know about an app - my Samsung phone does that anyway. Similar to a laptop. My phone is PAYG, so I use WiFi quite a bit.
I've had faulty stuff exchanged by TP-Link without a receipt because the 'manufactured date' made it still inside the 3 years. ;-)
Cheers, T i m
It was phoning the premium rate number to get a return code which rather put me off.
They also offer email and chat support (free):
Which is how I've always done in (an the online chat has been very good / accurate / informative).
Including things that had been thrown away by other people and they couldn't bother to deal with. ;-)
Cheers, T i m
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