I have a Netgear wireless WiFi adapter and it’s been working great more months. Now every time I try to log on to the internet it keeps telling me that the server can’t be found and it keeps showing that I have no internet access. My phone is on the Wi-Fi no problem. What’s up?
Does the USB port if you plug in another USB device? Does the WiFi adapter work if you connect it to a different PC?
When this happens, I reboot everything!
I am guessing since you did not specify…
But maybe you have a wireless router, a PC, and this USB WiFi adapter. Shutdown/power off for 20 seconds every device. Power back on the router. Then after a minute power back on the device the USB gizmo is connected to.
Assuming this is a USB Wireless ‘dongle’ type adaptor…
It may have just died. Some of these devices run pretty hot and have a short lifetime.
Or it could just be that the drivers are broken. Windows Update is particularly adept at messing up device drivers for wireless chipsets - you could try this:
Open Device Manager
Locate your wireless adaptor (if you can’t see it, try ‘show hidden devices’)
Right-click and select ‘uninstall’
Select the checkbox to delete the driver
Restart your machine and insert the device - it should install afresh
if you have access to download (i.e. on a different machine) the manufacturer’s own driver for your specific adaptor, install that - it’s usually better than the generic drivers that Windows will install.
I use a WiFi dongle in my desktop home computer and every now and then it can’t find any WiFi signals (even though there are many within range). Rebooting my PC, disabling/enabling the device, reinstalling the driver, none of that works.
Unplugging it and plugging it into another USB port on the same PC will fix it. It is the strangest thing and I have no good explanation for it but I don’t worry much as long as it works. By the way, the original port is fine, I can even plug the dongle back into that port later or plug something else into it without problems.
I’m currently using Windows 10 as my OS but I think this happened when I was still on Windows 7 also.
I have the problem too. When I disable the external WiFi stick, Windows 8 will not see networks when I enable it until I unplug it then plug it back into the same port.* I’ve had this happen with 3 or 4 different brands of WiFi stick, from no name to the biggies. It’s all the same.
- My MacBook Pro has only 2 USB ports. I don’t really have a choice.
I know why this happens.
Each time you plug a USB device into a different port, Windows creates a separate device record for it. You can’t see these device records, as they are hidden from view unless connected (even ‘show hidden devices’ doesn’t reveal them, unless you use the method below). Sometimes, all these invisible device entries seem to trip over each other, even though they are not active.
To see ‘nonpresent’ (different from ‘hidden’) devices, do this:
[ul]
[li]Open a command window (Start>run>cmd>Enter)[/li][li]Type SET DEVMGR_SHOW_NONPRESENT_DEVICES=1 <enter>[/li][li]Type START DEVMGMT.MSC <enter>[/li][li]Wait a moment - Device Manager will open[/li][li]In this device manager window, click View>Show hidden devices[/li][/ul]
This way, when you expand various categories, you will typically see a great many more entries - some of them faint/greyed-out. If you have four USB ports and you have plugged your WiFi dongle into each at different times, you will see three ‘nonpresent’ faint entries for it. Typically, anything that is faint (not present) can be safely uninstalled - and this is particularly true in the case of network components, and USB items such as mice, keyboards and external storage.