Was this a complete waste of time??

[TexasIndian]

backstory:  teenaged grandson has one of those $$ 'light box' gaming desktops

which he's on every waking moment...he has AX 11000 tri-band router (I do too).

But only had AC wifi-5, so got him "1800 Mbps WiFi-6 USB Dual antenna Adapter".

Now says speed has gone from ** to *** ("it's a lot faster PawPaw!! Thanks so much").

Now:  Well that got me excited, so I decided to try same on my archaic desktop

            (when I first bought this 'jalopy' WiFi-4/aN was dang near brand new!!).

Question:  (finally...sorry) Was this process completely useless since my desktop

                   (albeit old as hell) is hard-wired directly to my router?  (grandson's IS

                     connected wirelessly...on completely different floor of their house).

[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

Hi:

I have the AX11000 router too.

What a beast!

If you bought the same adapter, you can either disconnect the ethernet cable and use the Wi-Fi or just connect to the Wi-Fi adapter you bought and select always connect to this network option and the PC should connect to the Wi-Fi adapter and not the ethernet adapter.

[TexasIndian]

Thanks Paul, you're very diplomatic.  Go ahead and say it:

"You're hard-wired so you do NOT need that adapter idiot."

It's okay, the realization came after I did Speedtest and did

not greatly increase numbers??  Then it hit me like a ton of

'techno-inept' bricks.  Duh!!  Oh well, NOT a  problem.  My 

mother-in-law's desktop is NOT hardwired, so I'll try hers.

btw:  Upgraded to AX11000 since old router (Netgear 1900)

moved with us to much bigger house. As we added 'residents'

number of devices increased AND now we stream on every tv.

It was on sale, plus I'm a huge proponent of 'future-proofing'.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome. 

You're hard wired, but isn't the ethernet adapter in that model only capable of a maximum throughput of 100/MBPS?

I'd use the wifi adapter which should be much faster if that's the case. 

As I wrote earlier,  you can leave the PC hard wired, but use the wifi adapter as the primary  network connection.

Cheers, 

Paul

[TexasIndian]

Okay, I'll sleep on that bit of info....and hopefully wake up tomorrow

with a much higher level of techno aptitude & try to figure out HOW

to "use the wifi adapter as primary network connection".  My guess

is that means go into settings (router?) and switch connection from

'Hardwired Device'' to Band 3/5g? Got 2 cylinder Yugo..want a Viper!!

(hopefully moot point...waiting on next big pc sales...had to miss BF/CM

due to unforeseen family tragedy....and after doing months of research)

[Paul_Tikkanen]

I think all you need to do is to open the wireless connection that should be showing up on the right side of your PC's taskbar and connect to your router's SSID with the security key.

Connect to a Wi-Fi network in Windows - Microsoft Support

[TexasIndian]

NOT trying today (Sunday) will wait until next couple weekdays

when no one else home (ahhh, retirement).  Only immediate

issue I see is: as a victim of the 'auto-updating of W10 to make

your pc more prepped for W11' is my taskbar (and Settings)

have some things either absent/appear erratically/etc. As of

right now, do not have the ole (((. wireless icon symbol visible

(why I initially started the research/shop for new pc adventure).

[TexasIndian]

One last question hoping for advice: system 4-5 auto-updates ago,

Settings was completely wiped out (Taskbar OR Windows Start icon).

I lost all but 2 Taskbar icons.  For some odd reason, a recent update 

'returned' access to Settings via Windows Start icon (bottom left) but

alas the Wireless Connection icon never returned; nor have all but two

icons/shortcuts in bottom right ^Taskbar pop-up (Norton+speakers).

Soooo, is there procedure to switch over using Settings via Start menu??

(ideally before the next auto-update steals Settings away....again!!  Grrrr)

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Unfortunately, I wouldn't know why that happened.

The only suggestion I can offer would be to see if you can get the icons to show up again by the normal procedure of adding icons to the taskbar.

Add the battery icon to the taskbar in Windows 10 - Microsoft Support

[TexasIndian]

Thanks again Paul,

What I learned via MS Community forums was "if your system is NOT

deemed capable (in it's current state) of updating or 'prepping' itself

for W11 (without upgrading some components first) and since auto-

updates are unavoidable, your system will likely have some issues."

uhhh yeah!!   Seems my odd situation is not completely solitary  😠

Anyway, appreciate all your guidance/'tricks'/etc and may view this

video and try "adding icons to taskbar' tomorrow or this weekend.