Unable to connect to "Insert Wifi name here"

Jason5267

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Mar 4, 2014
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So I just signed up here on Tom'sHardware, I am a long time reader and this site has helped me a lot... but to the queston, I have two methods of connecting to my home wifi, 1st is through my PCI E wireless Netis card, which for some reason shows up as "Realtek RTL8192CE Wireless LAN 802.11n PCI-E NIC" in my device manager, and 2nd is my B-link USB wifi adapter, currently I am using the USB adapter instead of the PCI E card because whenever I try to connect with the PCI E card it just says unable to connect but troubleshooting finds no errors, drivers are up to date but nothing works, it can detect wifi fine though, the B-link USB still connects to wifi fine, I recently reinstalled windows, and tried the Netis card, on first boot it connected to wifi but failed every time after, I did notice the antenna is a little bent, and once it could connect to wifi when I fiddled with the antenna but after a reboot it failed to connect again... could anyone tell my why this is happening, all answers appreciated :)
 
The problem with PCI wireless cards is that they are "buried" low down inside the system case where a wireless signal will struggle to get through to your wireless router, hence the connection failure. This is where USB wireless cards are superior.

The reason why your Netis card is shown as "Realtek RTL8192CE" is that the wireless chip on the card is made by Realtek so that's how Windows identifies it. Netis, on the other hand, is just the company that produced the card and they put a Realtek wireless chip on it because Netis don't make there own wireless chips.
 

Jason5267

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Mar 4, 2014
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4,510


Well what you are saying makes sense, except that the router is in the room just downstairs, I get 4 bars single off the USB and full signal (5 bars) with the PCI card, the antenna are outside of the case, so I don't think signal is a problem, maybe it could be my motherboard? I am not too sure really just guessing :( could anyone tell me, if you disconnect the antenna from a PCI card can it still connect to wifi, or does it depend on the antenna to work?