I have found an old USB wireless adapter lying around the house that looks quite old. It would be very useful if I could get this working, however, I can't get any details on the model whatsoever to download the drivers.
It's just a plain black USB connection with a thin black aerial. When I plug it in to the PC (XP) it detects it, but only by the wireless standard it is using: 802.11 n WLAN.
I've been in to Device Manager, right clicked, properties and can't see anything specific in there.
Is there any way of finding this out at all so I can get it up and running? Are there any other places I can perhaps look to give me an idea of the drivers I need?
Thanks for any help, it's much appreciated.
[SOLVED] – I got the Vendor ID from the drivers properties window (Device Manager, right click on device, properties, details tab then Device Instance) – searched Google for the ID in here and found the correct drivers.
Best Answer
I found the drivers by searching the Vendor ID in Google.
I got to this by going to Device Manager (right click My Computer, Properties, Hardware, Device Manager) and selecting the 'unknown' device.
Right clicked on this, then Properties, Details tab.
Selected 'Device Instance Ltd' in the drop down.
Made note of the Vendor ID, this was in the format of:
VID_148F&PID_5370
Searched for that in Google and found the correct drivers to get the wireless adapter up and running.
Everything seems to be working okay so far.
As an added note - the drivers installed a programme which controls the wireless adapter instead of Windows XP. It's like a GUI programme which shows available networks, signal strength etc. I was too keen on this so I enabled the Wireless Zero Configuration Service to override this programme.
In XP
Start/Run - 'services.msc'
Scroll down to WLAN AutoConfig, double click, change the startup type to Automatic and select Start then Apply.
This then allowed me to then join the wireless Network the 'normal' way by using Windows to search ad connect to the wireless connection.