Windows 10: Windows 11 Pro Will a Network Adapter help me connect to WiFi withiuth an ethernet cable if...

The WiFi Networks aren t showing and I was thinking if an Network Adapter will help me connect to the internet without the ethernet cable, only using the router.

:)

 

laptop can't find wifi but connects with ethernet cable

Please try these troubleshooting steps that may help.

1. Make sure the router SSID broadcast is on.
   
2. Change the wifi channel to see if it resolves the problem.
   
3. Enter the SSID and WPA2 password manually and see if the laptop connects.
   
4. Temporarily turn off the encryption.
   
5. We go into device manager & check updates for wifi drivers, we may need to simply update the driver.
   
6. We go to Settings - Network & Internet - Status - Change Adapter Options, then right-clicked 'Ethernet' and disabled it. We do the same with wifi. Then we (with Ethernet still disabled) enabled wifi. It should re-connect to your wifi after a while.
   
7. We have to disconnect our Ethernet cable from our laptop and follow the steps:
   Start>Control Panel>Network and Sharing Center>Manage Wireless Networks and remove all wireless connections by right click on it and select Remove network from the drop down menu. After doing this, close the windows and scan for the wifi networks.
   Click on the available network and select connect. After a while, we will be asked to give a password for our wifi connection. Type the password and click on connect button. And now will be connected to our wifi network via wireless.
   
8. First is to disconnect the internet cable from the laptop then uninstall/reinstall the wifi adapter.
   Go to Device Manager and uninstall the wifi adapter.
   Once uninstalled, reboot the laptop and it should reinstall the driver automatically.
   After the reboot do try connecting to your wireless network again.
   If all these will not work, do also make sure that the wireless adapter is enabled. Depending the model of your laptop there should be key combinations on how to enable/disable it.
   

 

How to connect to an existing wifi network?

As you suggested, I tried disabling the ethernet adapter and that caused wi-fi to connect, so the desktop wifi does work. Also, I accessed the router and changed the wireless network name (to wfCHS). Thanks!

However many problems are still unresolved:

My laptop behaves just as I want it to. Assuming the router has wifi turned on and the laptop has an ethernet connection, connection to the internet is by ethernet (no private network name), and the wi-fi connection is to my private network "wfCHS", but with no connection to the internet. (If I disconnect the ethernet cable, then wfCHS becomes connected to the internet and stays that way even if I reconnect the cable.) A directory listing shows both laptop and desktop under "Network". Great!

Things are rather different with the desktop. With Ethernet disabled, the desktop shows a wi-fi connection to the internet. Under Settings > Status it's called "wfCHS" but under Network Connections it's called wfCHS2. If I then re-enable the ethernet connection, the wifi connection stays enabled for a minute or two, then disconnects. Further, the ethernet connection is given the name wfCHS2 under both Status and Network Connections.

Why does the desktop give an (unwanted) name to the ethernet connection while the laptop doesn't?

Why does the desktop disconnect its wi-fi connection a minute or so after the ethernet connection is enabled, while the laptop doesn't?

Why does the desktop give two different names to the wifi connection, depending on whether it's viewed under Status or Network Connections, while the laptop doesn't?

Why does the laptop show the desktop under Network, while the desktop shows only itself?

Things are so convoluted that I'd be happy to start over. I've had the desktop "forget" the wi-fi connection as you suggested, then re-established it, but this hasn't helped. Can the ethernet connection also be "forgotten"?

Really appreciate the help you've given so far!

 

Wifi not connecting without Ethernet cable


Basically what happened before: After updating to Windows 10, my computer was not showing any network options. (The icon says "Not connected - No connections are available) Going into Control Panel/Network and Internet/Network Connections, it then says "Local Area Connection Network cable unplugged". I ran diagnostics and it said to plug in the ethernet cable to the network adaptor. So my wifi connection will not work with my laptop unless directly connected to by the ethernet cable. Wifi works fine with phones, ipods/ipads, and another laptop that was also updated to windows 10/a desktop still using windows 8.