# Wireless USB Adapters - what are they and why do we need one? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 10, 2010, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wireless-usb-adapters-what-are-they-and-why-do-we-need-one/546214 "2010-07-10T13:51:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Fuzzy\_Dunlop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/848f3c/32.png) [@Fuzzy\_Dunlop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fuzzy_Dunlop)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2010, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wireless-usb-adapters-what-are-they-and-why-do-we-need-one/546214/21 "2010-07-11T03:16:00Z")
> [@HazelNutCoffee](#): > > What really annoys me is that we called the helpline last time we were trying to figure out what was wrong and the idiots did nothing but make me switch things on and off and finally told me that it was my laptop that was fucked up. :rolleyes: For what it’s worth, it seems to be an issue that is hard to diagnose for whatever reason. I own a small company that designs and sells WiFi products. When we train new support people we really emphasize not to forget MAC address filtering as a potential problem because otherwise they forget about it. I think it’s because 1) it’s an extra step that few people take to secure their network and when they do they tend to be experts who don’t forget they did it and never call in for support. So of the small pool who use filtering, an even smaller pool forget about it or had their network set up by someone who didn’t explain it to them and need help. And 2) it’s hard to distinguish from much more common problems like people forgetting what their network key is. The only thing that really made it an obvious possibility in your case was that the USB dongle worked when plugged into your computer. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wireless-usb-adapters-what-are-they-and-why-do-we-need-one/546214.md?page=1)