XPost: alt.comp.hardware   
   From: nospam@needed.invalid   
      
   On Thu, 2/27/2025 9:49 AM, micky wrote:   
   > I've been having trouble with with the wifi receiver in my fairly old   
   > Acer laptop**, but, showing good foresight, years before I had any   
   > trouble, I bought a USB Wireless LAN card***   
   >   
   > The LAN card is made in China by a company I've never heard of but its   
   > entry in Device Manage says Realtek.  Is it really Realtek?  I see that   
   > name a lot but now I"m not sure it's for real.   
   >   
   >   
   > **For a couple years, the wireless would stop working after a couple   
   > weeks, so I'd connect a cable, then a couple weeks later, that would   
   > stop working so I'd disconnect it and use wifi.  And on in on.   
   >   But in recent months, I used only the cable. Getting ready for a trip   
   > to see my brother, I unplugged it and the wifi wouldn't connect.  I ran   
   > the troubleshooter and it said it couldn't find the problem, but it   
   > would Reset and restart windows and that might help, and restarting is a   
   > nuisance but each time it did all of that, I worked.  Five or 6 times   
   > until I had sleep or hibernate. Then I had to start over with the   
   > troubleshooter.  Any idea of how to fix this?.   
   >   
   > ***which may or may not be what's currently connecting versus the   
   > built-in lan card.   
   >   
      
   services.msc : check "WLAN autoconfig" is running   
      
   Yes, RealTek is a major supplier of cheap networking devices.   
   A lot of builders use them. This one has two antennas. It has   
   a patch antenna on the other side of the PCB. And the rp-SMA   
   on the end accepts a screw-on plastic-stick antenna. That makes   
   it 2x2 MIMO, at a guess. Apparently the person who bought this,   
   paid $10 for it. Since he is taking it apart, I think you know   
   how well it works.   
      
      [Picture]   
      
       https://i.postimg.cc/hGjFnbDb/Real-Tek-Wifi-single-chip-two-antennas.jpg   
      
   Intel has also made it a point, to flood the market with "AX" models   
   of Wifi devices. The TPLink PCi Express cards I've got, underneath the   
   red tinted heatsink is an Intel module. TPLink does not have much work   
   to do, to prepare for one of those under their spiffy hidey hole.   
   (The heatsink only exists to hide what is underneath.)   
      
   The Intel one could be fitted to your laptop, in the connector   
   intended for a Wifi module. (Inside the laptop casing, generally   
   two tiny antenna cables which are easy to damage/squash while doing   
   the swapout.)   
      
   Some laptop firmwares are set up to reject modules that do not   
   meet the requirements of the "branding". But not a lot of laptops   
   still do things like that.   
      
   You don't want too aggressive a Wifi module, because of the potential for heat   
   output.   
      
   The antennas run up the back of the panel, the panel can be plastic   
   so that the antenna signal escapes the plastic. The number of connectors   
   on the adapter card for inside the laptop should match the   
   number of antenna cables. Two antenna cables = two connector module.   
      
   The difference with an Intel, is you would get an Intel driver   
   for it.   
      
   All of them have to be compliant on channel assignment. When the driver   
   installs, it takes the country it is currently operating in, into account.   
   It should not splatter outside the range of frequencies defined   
   for unlicensed operation. Maybe the router uses a certain channel   
   of a certain width, and then the module uses the same thing. If a channel   
   has too many users, you would change the channel.   
      
   On dual band adapters, there is 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz. 5GHz doesn't   
   penetrate walls quite as well, but at one time, the band was   
   less used. Then there was a tradeoff by selecting such a band.   
   And in the case of single chip adapters with the PA stage inside   
   the big chip, running the 5GHz PA might be pushing it. Some of the   
   single chip solutions, the PA weakens after 3 months.   
      
   The Wifi adapters are adaptive, and they will turn down the PA power   
   output, if the device is close to the router. Is that enough to   
   "preserve" the chip ? Hard to say.   
      
   It used to be, that the ENUM registry key, housed all the hardware info,   
   and deleting it, allowed hardware discovery to start over again.   
   This could clean up the driver situation a bit. But it would   
   not repair missing things, like if the WLAN autoconfig got   
   zapped somehow. A Repair Install can restore the WLAN Autoconfig,   
   But Repair installing is unlikely to clean up a really bad driver   
   mess made by the user.   
      
      Paul   
      
   --- SoupGate-DOS v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)