Need software or something for 11AC USB Wireless Adapter

In alt.comp.os.windows-10, on Sun, 29 Jul 2018 18:14:53 +0100, Andy
Burns wrote:

nospam wrote:

hotspot functionality is already built into android and ios phones. no
adapter needed.

I think he wants the wifi dingle to let the PC use the phone's hotspot
feature ...

Exactly.

In alt.comp.os.windows-10, on Sun, 29 Jul 2018 19:20:56 +0100, Andy
Burns wrote:

nospam wrote:

just about every pc these days has wifi already built in.

laptops yes, "gaming" motherboards maybe, but bog standard PCs no.

Yessirree.

In alt.comp.os.windows-10, on Sun, 29 Jul 2018 11:51:14 -0400, Ben Myers
wrote:

On 7/29/2018 4:10 AM, micky wrote:
At a hamfest today, I bought a 11AC USB Wireless Adapter, so I could use
my phone as a hotspot if my home internet goes out again.

I overpaid for a generic adapter, and I coudl just take my loss and buy
a new one, but I really reallly really want to learn from this.

First the device plugs into USB, I get a message that says it's loading,
and it shows up in Device Manager which says it's working properly. As
one of 10 network adapters. It has no yellow. Does that mean I don't
need the driver that is supposed to be on the mini-CD that came with it?

Isn't there supposed to be a screen that shows the various wifi signals
around me and allows me to pick the one I want?
If I need more software, is there any source for generic software, to
list available wifi signals and let me choose one. Is all that included
in "driver" if I find a downloadable driver on the web????

The instructions give a download url at www.mediatek.com but there is no
longer anything downloadable there. I thought I'd heard of that company
and that it was a good one!

Though everything looks new, even the bag the mini-CD was in, the CD
cannot be fully read. It will show the high-level directory but the
blue circle keeps spinning. And even then, though some file names look
good, others have a row of ???? in them. Like abc?????.pdf !!!

Once it stopped spinning but when I tried to look inside a subdirectory,
again the spinning blue circle.

I can't get the CD to display even that much anymore. I thought I heard
water dripping, but eventually I realized it was the CD drive, every
couple seconds, and when I opened it, the metal plate under the CD was
hot, quite hot!!

For a while my CD drive didn't work at all anymore, with another CD and
a DVD. Now the CD works again but I can't play the DVD. Which is more
likely. The drive brokee so it won't play the new CD, or the new CD
caused the drive to overheat and broke it? (I'll try with more CDs and
DVDs and replace the drive if need be. )

This new mini CD has a quarter inch "scratch" near the outer edge, but I
thought the CD is written from the center out so any damage at the outer
edge would be in a file. ?


The top level directory has subs for Mac, Linux, and two kinds of
Windows. Huh? Migdal and Amway, or some such names. What are
they????

https://www.mediatek.com/products/co...broadband-wifi

Ben

Wow. Thank you. I should have found that myself. I think I got to
Home Networking, which I see now is parallel to this, but why I didnt'
find this, I don't know.

Most of the entries didn't have files to download and the one with the
matching number 1610 only had for Linux and Apple, but the one for 1612
has Windows too, is described as being for a dongle, and it seems to
work great.

It picked up both my phone and my router at 100% (and 3 neighbors around
40%). It connected too and gave statistics about how many bytes up and
down, though I didn't go to the trouble of disconecting my DSL and using
my phone. Still, I'm sure it works.

In alt.comp.os.windows-10, on Sun, 29 Jul 2018 05:02:19 -0400, Paul
wrote:

micky wrote:
At a hamfest today, I bought a 11AC USB Wireless Adapter, so I could use
my phone as a hotspot if my home internet goes out again.

I overpaid for a generic adapter, and I coudl just take my loss and buy
a new one, but I really reallly really want to learn from this.

First the device plugs into USB, I get a message that says it's loading,
and it shows up in Device Manager which says it's working properly. As
one of 10 network adapters. It has no yellow. Does that mean I don't
need the driver that is supposed to be on the mini-CD that came with it?

Isn't there supposed to be a screen that shows the various wifi signals
around me and allows me to pick the one I want?

In Device Manager, if you do Properties on an item
like that, there should be a driver file list. From the
file names, you can get some idea whether just some
portion of a composite device got loaded, or the
entire device loaded.

Ben solved my problem for me, but like I say, I want to learn something
so I will still investigate all your suggestions.

There are 6 files in the driver file list, 2 bin, 2 sys, a dat, and a
dll.

And drivers aren't the end of the story. There can be
applications software or control panels, which don't come
with the OS. The OS may have "Class drivers" for the generic
lower parts of the stack.

There are three blue buttons underneath the Download word
here for example, and those contain ZIP files. The windows
driver is 40MB compressed. (The Linux and Mac buttons are
swapped.) A 40MB file is likely to be more than a driver.
I don't have an unpacker for InstallShield (I have to do
those using WINE in a Linux VM). There's no point
in me unpacking anything, until you identify the exact
device involved.

https://www.mediatek.com/products/broadbandWifi/mt7612u

Hey, you found it too. I didn't read this in detail until after reading
Ben's. The Information box in the Events tab of the device says "Device
USB\VID_0E8D&PID_7610\1.0 requires further installation." So I think
originally the model was MT7610u, but that has softwaer only for Linux
and Apple and 7612 is probably an updated version.

IS_Setup_ICS_011916_1.5.39.173.zip (IS = evil InstallShield EXE)


If I need more software, is there any source for generic software, to
list available wifi signals and let me choose one. Is all that included
in "driver" if I find a downloadable driver on the web????

The instructions give a download url at www.mediatek.com but there is no
longer anything downloadable there. I thought I'd heard of that company
and that it was a good one!

MediaTek started out making chipsets for DVD drives as
far as I know. They've branched out since then, because
DVD drives are a declining business and not a growth
area.

They may have bought RALink Technology, which made Wifi

RAlink might have been what I called Amway or Migdal.

I don't know what the other one was and CD won't even start up that much
anymore, using 3 different file managers. The drive continues to click
and I'm sure it's getting hot.

chipsets. In the usb file, the item may be listed in
that section. The 7601 started out as a RaLink Tech
chip. Newer MediaTek chips may be listed in a
MediaTek section.

http://www.linux-usb.org/usb.ids
148f Ralink Technology, Corp.
7601 MT7601U Wireless Adapter

In Device Manager, there will be a Propertiesetail item
with HardwareID in the name, giving a way to get the
148f:7601 numbers. SUBSYS field gives the exact instance
(hardware design by OEM). The CC stands for Class Code,
for things that have Class drivers.

Hardware ids are
USB\VID_0E8D&PID_7610&REV_0100
USB\VID_0E8D&PID_7610

I couldn't find other stuff.


Though everything looks new, even the bag the mini-CD was in, the CD
cannot be fully read. It will show the high-level directory but the
blue circle keeps spinning. And even then, though some file names look
good, others have a row of ???? in them. Like abc?????.pdf !!!

Foreign language Unicode ?

??

Try ripping the CD with Imgburn and make an ISO file from it.

?? I was looking forward to doing all this but now I can't get... well,
I haven't tried Imgburn, but I don't think it will do better than a file
manager.

Well, it did a couple steps but stalled on analysing TOC information,
and I could feel it making the drawer going bump every couple seconds.

I also found 3 more small scratches.

See if Imgburn can acquire an error free ISO, then after that,
you can work on your filename problem. Windows 10 can mount
the captured ISO9660 from Imgburn as a virtual optical drive,
and then you can inspect the newly captured goods without
worrying about scratches.

This only works if the scratch doesn't affect anything important,
and Imgburn agrees that the disc was acquired cleanly.

http://www.oldversion.com/windows/imgburn/

ImgBurn 2.5.0.0 Jul 26, 2009 2.07 MB

CRC32: 39CD6FC6
MD5: F3791CFACDAC03B9E676E44AA2630243
SHA-1: E07BCC23B495D0A966BAE359EA9E0E3A11888454

If it pesters you to do updates, just say "No".
2.5.0.0 is a clean version without adware.

I noticed the adware on a new version and I'm using v2.5.2, which seems
good. Thought the file went from 2MB to 5MB in only 13 months. I wonder
why. Is that adware

Once it stopped spinning but when I tried to look inside a subdirectory,
again the spinning blue circle.

I can't get the CD to display even that much anymore. I thought I heard
water dripping, but eventually I realized it was the CD drive, every
couple seconds, and when I opened it, the metal plate under the CD was
hot, quite hot!!

For a while my CD drive didn't work at all anymore, with another CD and
a DVD. Now the CD works again but I can't play the DVD. Which is more
likely. The drive brokee so it won't play the new CD, or the new CD
caused the drive to overheat and broke it? (I'll try with more CDs and
DVDs and replace the drive if need be. )

This new mini CD has a quarter inch "scratch" near the outer edge, but I
thought the CD is written from the center out so any damage at the outer
edge would be in a file. ?


The top level directory has subs for Mac, Linux, and two kinds of
Windows. Huh? Migdal and Amway, or some such names. What are
they????

Worry about that later, after the mini-disc is converted
to an ISO file. And the ISO file is mounted as a virtual
drive in Windows 10, and the mini-disc can be put back
in its sleeve.

Thanks. No success on repairing CD but your link was good and everything
is working now.

Paul

On Sun, 29 Jul 2018 19:43:38 -0400, micky
wrote:

In alt.comp.os.windows-10, on Sun, 29 Jul 2018 10:27:47 -0500, Char
Jackson wrote:

On Sun, 29 Jul 2018 04:10:05 -0400, micky
wrote:

If you have an unused
WiFi router that can operate in client mode (versus AP mode), you can
also use that as your WiFi adapter. Connect to it via Ethernet cable,
and have it connect to your phone's hotspot.

I've never used the router to receive wifi. I didn't even know it could
do it! Well that's sort of stupid to say. If a laptop is connected to
the router, wrt the laptop, the router trnansmits when I'm downloading
and receives when I'm uploading. But I never thought about that before.

I'll start on this in a few minutes. thanks.

I know you've resolved everything by now so this is just academic, but
if you have an old WiFi router that can be configured to work in "client
mode", (not all can; some that can't can do so after loading new
firmware), you can change the router from its default of "AP mode" to
client mode". In client mode, the router will connect to a WiFi access
point, such as the hotspot on your phone, and make that available on
each of it's (usually 4 or 5) wired Ethernet LAN ports. So a single old
WiFi router, reconfigured to operate in client mode, can provide
Internet access to 4 or 5 wired PCs. If you had more PCs, you could use
an Ethernet switch to expand the number of ports to whatever you need.

One advantage is that the
single 'adapter' can provide WiFi connectivity to multiple PCs.

So it could receive wifi from the phone and retransmit it to a laptop at
the same time? Almost like a phone does when acting like a hotspot.

The phone connects to the Internet via 3G/4G or whatever. When you
enable the phone's hotspot feature, the phone switches its WiFi from
client mode to AP (access point) mode. At that point, a WiFi router in
client mode can connect to the phone's hotspot. The old router then
makes the Internet connection available on each of its LAN ports.

micky wrote:
In alt.comp.os.windows-10, on Sun, 29 Jul 2018 05:02:19 -0400, Paul
wrote:

micky wrote:
At a hamfest today, I bought a 11AC USB Wireless Adapter, so I could use
my phone as a hotspot if my home internet goes out again.

I overpaid for a generic adapter, and I coudl just take my loss and buy
a new one, but I really reallly really want to learn from this.

First the device plugs into USB, I get a message that says it's loading,
and it shows up in Device Manager which says it's working properly. As
one of 10 network adapters. It has no yellow. Does that mean I don't
need the driver that is supposed to be on the mini-CD that came with it?

Isn't there supposed to be a screen that shows the various wifi signals
around me and allows me to pick the one I want?
In Device Manager, if you do Properties on an item
like that, there should be a driver file list. From the
file names, you can get some idea whether just some
portion of a composite device got loaded, or the
entire device loaded.

Ben solved my problem for me, but like I say, I want to learn something
so I will still investigate all your suggestions.

There are 6 files in the driver file list, 2 bin, 2 sys, a dat, and a
dll.
And drivers aren't the end of the story. There can be
applications software or control panels, which don't come
with the OS. The OS may have "Class drivers" for the generic
lower parts of the stack.

There are three blue buttons underneath the Download word
here for example, and those contain ZIP files. The windows
driver is 40MB compressed. (The Linux and Mac buttons are
swapped.) A 40MB file is likely to be more than a driver.
I don't have an unpacker for InstallShield (I have to do
those using WINE in a Linux VM). There's no point
in me unpacking anything, until you identify the exact
device involved.

https://www.mediatek.com/products/broadbandWifi/mt7612u

Hey, you found it too. I didn't read this in detail until after reading
Ben's. The Information box in the Events tab of the device says "Device
USB\VID_0E8D&PID_7610\1.0 requires further installation." So I think
originally the model was MT7610u, but that has softwaer only for Linux
and Apple and 7612 is probably an updated version.
IS_Setup_ICS_011916_1.5.39.173.zip (IS = evil InstallShield EXE)

If I need more software, is there any source for generic software, to
list available wifi signals and let me choose one. Is all that included
in "driver" if I find a downloadable driver on the web????

The instructions give a download url at www.mediatek.com but there is no
longer anything downloadable there. I thought I'd heard of that company
and that it was a good one!
MediaTek started out making chipsets for DVD drives as
far as I know. They've branched out since then, because
DVD drives are a declining business and not a growth
area.

They may have bought RALink Technology, which made Wifi

RAlink might have been what I called Amway or Migdal.

I don't know what the other one was and CD won't even start up that much
anymore, using 3 different file managers. The drive continues to click
and I'm sure it's getting hot.

chipsets. In the usb file, the item may be listed in
that section. The 7601 started out as a RaLink Tech
chip. Newer MediaTek chips may be listed in a
MediaTek section.

http://www.linux-usb.org/usb.ids
148f Ralink Technology, Corp.
7601 MT7601U Wireless Adapter

In Device Manager, there will be a Propertiesetail item
with HardwareID in the name, giving a way to get the
148f:7601 numbers. SUBSYS field gives the exact instance
(hardware design by OEM). The CC stands for Class Code,
for things that have Class drivers.

Hardware ids are
USB\VID_0E8D&PID_7610&REV_0100
USB\VID_0E8D&PID_7610

I couldn't find other stuff.
Though everything looks new, even the bag the mini-CD was in, the CD
cannot be fully read. It will show the high-level directory but the
blue circle keeps spinning. And even then, though some file names look
good, others have a row of ???? in them. Like abc?????.pdf !!!
Foreign language Unicode ?

??

Try ripping the CD with Imgburn and make an ISO file from it.

?? I was looking forward to doing all this but now I can't get... well,
I haven't tried Imgburn, but I don't think it will do better than a file
manager.

Well, it did a couple steps but stalled on analysing TOC information,
and I could feel it making the drawer going bump every couple seconds.

I also found 3 more small scratches.

See if Imgburn can acquire an error free ISO, then after that,
you can work on your filename problem. Windows 10 can mount
the captured ISO9660 from Imgburn as a virtual optical drive,
and then you can inspect the newly captured goods without
worrying about scratches.

This only works if the scratch doesn't affect anything important,
and Imgburn agrees that the disc was acquired cleanly.

http://www.oldversion.com/windows/imgburn/

ImgBurn 2.5.0.0 Jul 26, 2009 2.07 MB

CRC32: 39CD6FC6
MD5: F3791CFACDAC03B9E676E44AA2630243
SHA-1: E07BCC23B495D0A966BAE359EA9E0E3A11888454

If it pesters you to do updates, just say "No".
2.5.0.0 is a clean version without adware.

I noticed the adware on a new version and I'm using v2.5.2, which seems
good. Thought the file went from 2MB to 5MB in only 13 months. I wonder
why. Is that adware
Once it stopped spinning but when I tried to look inside a subdirectory,
again the spinning blue circle.

I can't get the CD to display even that much anymore. I thought I heard
water dripping, but eventually I realized it was the CD drive, every
couple seconds, and when I opened it, the metal plate under the CD was
hot, quite hot!!

For a while my CD drive didn't work at all anymore, with another CD and
a DVD. Now the CD works again but I can't play the DVD. Which is more
likely. The drive brokee so it won't play the new CD, or the new CD
caused the drive to overheat and broke it? (I'll try with more CDs and
DVDs and replace the drive if need be. )

This new mini CD has a quarter inch "scratch" near the outer edge, but I
thought the CD is written from the center out so any damage at the outer
edge would be in a file. ?


The top level directory has subs for Mac, Linux, and two kinds of
Windows. Huh? Migdal and Amway, or some such names. What are
they????
Worry about that later, after the mini-disc is converted
to an ISO file. And the ISO file is mounted as a virtual
drive in Windows 10, and the mini-disc can be put back
in its sleeve.

Thanks. No success on repairing CD but your link was good and everything
is working now.

You should check the tray of the optical drive, and make sure
it has the "indentation" for mini-CD. If the plastic only has
the one level, with full CD/DVD diameter, it could be that
it's not gripping the mini-CD properly. The purpose of
the second indentation the size of the mini-CD, is so the
hub aligns properly. If there's a lot of heat, it could
be that there is grinding between the optical disc and the
tray or something.

The increase in size of Imgburn, was the adware. I
don't know what the policy (and version) is today.

The USB ID file doesn't have the newer MediaTek in it,
so maybe the maintainer has given up or something.
Actually, if you search on the 7610, you'll see that
individual manufacturers have applied for custom IDs
of their own (TPLink has their own ID for that
MediaTek). There doesn't seem to be an entry
for the unmodified design (like, if a no-name fly-by-night
company made a Wifi dongle with the MediaTek chipset).

The whole process, would have made it difficult for
a customer to figure this out. Short of their mini-CD
working properly.

I would work on acquiring a better optical drive
at the next hamfest :-) Drives used to be $20 even
at Newegg, so don't pay too much. I would think
all of the drives would have the indentation for mini-CD.
The mechanical bits are likely made by a different company
than the branding on the drive. Apparently one or two
big factories make the mechanical part of the drive,
for about a buck, and the drive manufacturer then
adds their stuff to it. Rather than every company
starting with a pile of molten plastic and making
their own.

Once you have the equipment to read the miniCD without
grinding the **** out of it, you can work on your
Unicode puzzle.

Paul

In alt.comp.os.windows-10, on Mon, 30 Jul 2018 00:15:48 -0500, Char
Jackson wrote:

On Sun, 29 Jul 2018 19:43:38 -0400, micky
wrote:

In alt.comp.os.windows-10, on Sun, 29 Jul 2018 10:27:47 -0500, Char
Jackson wrote:

On Sun, 29 Jul 2018 04:10:05 -0400, micky
wrote:

If you have an unused
WiFi router that can operate in client mode (versus AP mode), you can
also use that as your WiFi adapter. Connect to it via Ethernet cable,
and have it connect to your phone's hotspot.

I've never used the router to receive wifi. I didn't even know it could
do it! Well that's sort of stupid to say. If a laptop is connected to
the router, wrt the laptop, the router trnansmits when I'm downloading
and receives when I'm uploading. But I never thought about that before.

I'll start on this in a few minutes. thanks.

I know you've resolved everything by now so this is just academic, but
if you have an old WiFi router that can be configured to work in "client

I only have the first router I ever got. It doesn't have N, I think it
is, but I'm not even using wifi for the desktop. That's by cable.

Only use wifi for the printer and before a trip to set up the laptop.

But I will keep my eyes open, maybe I'll even buy one just for this
purpose, as you describe here. There's another hamfest coming up.

mode", (not all can; some that can't can do so after loading new
firmware), you can change the router from its default of "AP mode" to
client mode". In client mode, the router will connect to a WiFi access
point, such as the hotspot on your phone, and make that available on
each of it's (usually 4 or 5) wired Ethernet LAN ports. So a single old
WiFi router, reconfigured to operate in client mode, can provide
Internet access to 4 or 5 wired PCs. If you had more PCs, you could use
an Ethernet switch to expand the number of ports to whatever you need.

One advantage is that the
single 'adapter' can provide WiFi connectivity to multiple PCs.

So it could receive wifi from the phone and retransmit it to a laptop at
the same time? Almost like a phone does when acting like a hotspot.

The phone connects to the Internet via 3G/4G or whatever. When you
enable the phone's hotspot feature, the phone switches its WiFi from
client mode to AP (access point) mode. At that point, a WiFi router in
client mode can connect to the phone's hotspot. The old router then
makes the Internet connection available on each of its LAN ports.

Got it.

I've got 5GB a month but the month just started. I will wait until it's
mostly over, turn off my dsl modem and see how it goes with my new toy.

It would also be useful if the wifi on my laptop fails.

I read conflicting pages about whether Mintmobile allows the use of
hotspots. Is that off-topic here??

micky wrote:


I read conflicting pages about whether Mintmobile allows the use of
hotspots. Is that off-topic here??

Be careful what you wish for.

Some providers, if they see some Windows browser
strings fly by in your phone data usage, it can mean
an extra $15 charge appears on your bill.

Make absolutely sure you know what their charge
sheet looks like.

If the advert page on the web said "5GB and
free HotSpot!!!", then you'd have a fair idea
there is no charge. If it says "5GB per month"
with no other words, you have to assume when
you connect as a hotspot, "cha-ching", the
extra charge will appear on the bill at the
end of the month. They can do stuff like
program a Deep Packet Inspection box, to
generate a billing record when the traffic
is seen.

The "5GB of Gold" isn't sold to you to be
used any way you want. There's a special
consumption ceremony. It would be like the
grocery store selling you hotdogs, but
on the understanding you have to eat the
whole package in one sitting (hot dog eating
contest). The mode of consumption matters
to your provider. It gives them extra
"comfort" to charge you more, for data
you've already paid for.

Paul

In article , Paul
wrote:

Some providers, if they see some Windows browser
strings fly by in your phone data usage, it can mean
an extra $15 charge appears on your bill.

that's not how it works, especially since mobile browsers can change
the user agent, just like desktop browsers.

some plans include hotspot and some plans don't. for the ones that
don't, it's usually blocked.

in some cases, it can be spoofed, but that's more difficult than it
once was.

Make absolutely sure you know what their charge
sheet looks like.

obviously.

nospam wrote:
In article , Paul

Make absolutely sure you know what their charge
sheet looks like.

obviously.

There are some 2018 plans described here.

https://www.computerworld.com/articl...e-hotspot.html

The plans aren't as predatory as they used to be.

But the one that drops to 32Kbit/sec when you
run out of data, is pretty funny.

"Once you’ve reached the hotspot data limit, the
network slows downloads to 32Kbps, which should
be the bare minimum for email."

I can see a few phones getting thrown against the
wall when that happens :-) 32Kbps. What luxury.

Paul

In article , Wolf K
wrote:


I don't have a data plan, use wi-fi when convenient instead.

there are times when there isn't available wifi (driving) or the wifi
doesn't work that well (common at hotels) or one doesn't trust the wifi
network (and vpn isn't an option).

On 7/31/2018 7:33 AM, nospam wrote:
In article , Wolf K
wrote:


I don't have a data plan, use wi-fi when convenient instead.

there are times when there isn't available wifi (driving) or the wifi
doesn't work that well (common at hotels) or one doesn't trust the wifi
network (and vpn isn't an option).

Or when the AC power goes off for 13 hours as it did for me yesterday.
(And 40K other customers in my area.) After my cable modem backup
battery died I was very glad to find my cell tower still working. When
my phone battery got low I charged it using my laptop. I was positively
in the dark ages yesterday...