usb wireless adapter Archives - Rick's Daily Tips

Q&A: Will it cost a lot to fix the WiFi on my laptop?

Posted on April 13, 2022

Note: The links in this post are affiliate links.

Question from Fred: I have a 2 year old Lenovo IdeaPad laptop. It was working fine till yesterday evening but now the Wi-Fi won’t work.

I thought it might be a setting, but the Wi-Fi adapter isn’t even showing up in the Device Manager under Windows 10.

Since it won’t work with Windows, I tried booting into Linux Mint (I have a dual-boot setup). Mint won’t recognize the Wi-Fi adapter either so I’m thinking it must be a hardware problem.

Can this be fixed without costing me an arm and a leg? [Read more…]

Q&A: Do nano USB WiFi adapters work as well as larger ones?

Posted on March 16, 2022

Note: The links in this post are affiliate links.

Question from Alexis: Hi, Rick. I need to buy a USB WiFi adapter for my computer and I’d really like to use one of the small “nano” adapters like this one.

I really like those because they don’t stick out from the computer very much. I’m always afraid I’ll catch it on something and break it.

The thing is, I’ve heard that the small size might keep it from working as well as a full size adapter that has a long antenna. Is that something I need to worry about? [Read more…]