Question Help Needed. Unable to find windows driver for Netgear WDNA3200 usb WiFi adapter.

[IanG367]

In a new house with Virgin Broadband recently installed.

True to recent experiences;Virgin have "Improved" their offering by only providing wireless on the cheapest level of service.

This has me using two separate wifi dongles to support my two desktop computers. The windows only box I am using a recently purchased TP Link AC600 on. The choice of the TP device for this as it simply worked as "plug and play".

My second machine is a Dell Optiplex that I am dual booting between Linux Mint 20.3 and windows 10. On this i am using the Netgear WDNA3200 which Linux Mint was happy to auto configure for me. (Woo hoo!)

Today I booted up in windows 10 and there is no network. I have been viewing different sites and am unable to find window 10 (x64) driver for this. I am hoping that some kind soul here will be able to point me at the correct drivers or a work around for the issue.

Thanking you in advance for your help in this matter.

Kind regards,
Ian

 

[kerberos_20]

try these
https://kb.netgear.com/26951/WNDA3100v2-Software-Version-2-2-0-5-Supports-Win8-8-1-10

WNDA3100v3 Software Version 1.0.0.13

WNDA3100v3 Software Version 1.0.0.13

kb.netgear.com

 

[lantis3]

Probably no driver

https://community.netgear.com/t5/USB-WIFI-Adapters/WNDA3200-DRIVER/m-p/1099091

see if this info match your device
https://techinfodepot.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Netgear_WNDA3200

or see if you can get your wifi device info like following

 

[kerberos_20]

quick dive shows up that atheros AR9280 driver can be used with your netgear wifi dongle (as its using atheros chip in it)
https://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com/Search.aspx?q=Atheros AR9280
last driver on windows update is from 2017, you would just need to force install it in device manager as hardware id wont be matching with that driver hw id device list

 

[JohnMGotts]

From the Netgear Site...this driver supports Win10

https://www.downloads.netgear.com/f...91.108772052.1713036400-1699162822.1713036400

 

[bill001g]

Maybe rather than trying to hack in a driver spend the $20 and buy something a bit newer. 802.11n is very old technology.

 

[BFG-9000]

There is actually an 8MB storage partition on the device with old drivers, which may work well enough to get to WindowsUpdate to update to the latest available drivers automatically

Otherwise the normal plug and play way is to temporarily connect via wired ethernet so that the correct drivers can be directly obtained from WindowsUpdate and automatically installed

The device has Atheros AR9002U-2NX which is common, and even the standard Windows 10 install includes a variety of AR9002 drivers including AR9002WB-2NG which may be close enough, but needless to say installing close but not exact drivers requires manual intervention. They are under the Update Drivers dialog in Device Manager under Qualcomm Atheros Communications.

 

[kerberos_20]

which may work well enough to get to WindowsUpdate to update to the latest available drivers automatically

windows update drivers ends at win 8.1 for that hardware id

 

[BFG-9000]

windows update drivers ends at win 8.1 for that hardware id

Which are likely better than the Vista drivers on the device itself. WindowsUpdate will try push the latest WHQL drivers available for it in Windows 10, even if those were originally intended for Windows 8.1 or 7. For something like this, they should even work, but of course have no WPA3, no 802.11w Management Frame Protection, and no KRACK mitigations. In this case, those latest drivers might actually be the same as the ones already included in Windows 10 (just missing the string in the inf file) because the device is so old, and the manufacturer neglected to ever supply any newer drivers themselves. It was after all an OEM device supplied to an ISP and continued support probably not in their contract.

Yes, if OP wanted better security and performance, then Bill's suggestion is best. Just be sure to get a device with drivers for both Windows and Linux