Railworks America

I've just done a fresh install of windows, and for some reason, the wireless adapter i have isn'tbeing detected by the pc.In the device manager, it says unknown device. The driver for the devce has been downloaded, but i don't know where to copy it to. It's a TL-WN821N, and in the folder, there are these files:

net8192cu (security catalog)
net8192 (setup info)
rtl8192.sys

Does anyone know where i need to copy these files to?

Thanks.

1) Which version of Windows are you running?

2) Where did you download the driver? If not from the manufacturer's site, you should find that and look for downloads there, or at least information about installing the driver properly.

I'm not claiming to be able to help you, just offering some suggestions.

You don't copy the driver files you install them.
Fist of all, is the driver package in a Zip file? If so you need to right click on it and expand it.
You will then have to look inside the folder for something along the lines of "setup.exe" "installer.exe" or something similar.
When you find that right click and pick "Run as Administrator" Otherwise some parts of the driver may not install.
Just follow the instructions in the little pop up windows.
Be careful and scroll though the pop up windows before clicking anything, look for unwanted toolbars and other software you don't want first and uncheck the boxes first before continuing.
Then it should be the usual stuff with "I Agree" "Install" " Finish" "Restart" etc.

Thanks for the advice. But anyhow, a 'friend' of mine managed to get the PC connected through the internet tab on the taskbar (same as Laptops with inbuilt adapters without having to fool around with the actual program which was acting sort of weird.

BTW, is it possible to install a wireless adapter in a desktop PC? Only reason I'm asking is because I haven't actually received a definitive answer when I've asked someone.

Yeah they sell them all over the place.

Buzz is right and I'd like to add that a wireless adapter on a PC will slow down it's internet connection. I've never seen one connect faster than about 20MB per second through a wireless adapter.

Why not have a wireless router ?

Ericmopar wrote:I'd like to add that a wireless adapter on a PC will slow down it's internet connection. I've never seen one connect faster than about 20MB per second through a wireless adapter.

Not quite correct Eric.

I have a desktop with a Gigabit ethernet adapter on a 100Mbps fibre broadband connection. I can disable the Ethernet adapter and enable an N USB wireless adapter and vice versa. When I run a speed test I get 102Mbps/21Mbps on the Ethernet cable and 69Mbps/21Mbps on the wireless adapter.

I suspect that if I was using an ac wireless modem and adapter I would get the same speeds as the Ethernet connection.

latimers wrote:

Ericmopar wrote:I'd like to add that a wireless adapter on a PC will slow down it's internet connection. I've never seen one connect faster than about 20MB per second through a wireless adapter.

Not quite correct Eric.

I have a desktop with a Gigabit ethernet adapter on a 100Mbps fibre broadband connection. I can disable the Ethernet adapter and enable an N USB wireless adapter and vice versa. When I run a speed test I get 102Mbps/21Mbps on the Ethernet cable and 69Mbps/21Mbps on the wireless adapter.

I suspect that if I was using an ac wireless modem and adapter I would get the same speeds as the Ethernet connection.

I'll be. I've never seen more than 20 - 25mbps on a wifi adapter, even with a built in one on a Dell that my mother owns. Even with newer adapters and routers.
I've gone into the drivers and made sure the settings were at least 100mbps.
My mother gets about 20 through a built in WiFi adapter and 50+ when hooked up to the modem via ethernet. The 50+ is what her internet connection is.
I have older WiFi USB adapters around, maybe that's part of the issue.
The router is a brand new N600 dual bander.

The internet speed with the service provider at my place is 300kbps, which is virtually dial up speed compared to what I'm hearing about here. The contract ends soon though, so might be able to look around a bit and find a better service, from another provider.

BTW, is it possible to put a wireless adapter into a desktop PC?

Two ways to put wireless capability into a desktop.

The first is to buy an internal card that goes into one of the slots on the motherboard.

The second and by far the easiest is to buy a USB wireless adapter. That way all you need to do is plug the adapter into a USB slot and set it up. That's the way I've gone and it works really well.

Bob.