Inspiron 5100 WiFi

Question

Hello. I would like to have WiFi functionality on old Inspiron 5100 laptop with Windows XP professional. It does not have mini PC card installed. I bought a cheap brandless 300M USB WiFi adapter and got what I paid for. It does not connect to wireless network. After driver’s installation, the device manager recognized a 'new device' as 'Realtek RTL8192EU Wireless LAN 802.11n USB 2.0 Network Adapter'. And 'The device is working properly'. Wireless network is listed, with great signal strength, but there is no connection to it. One of the things I noticed was the lack of WPA2 in the list of available encryptions, and that is what my network is using. But even after switching the network to WEP (for test purposes) and selecting WEP on laptop’s connection, there is still no connection. Is there an option (PC card, PCMCIA, USB adapter) for this Inspiron 5100 to have WiFi with WPA2 support? Thank you. I appreciate your help.

ejn63 · Answer

You need SP3 installed -- that said, you really should not be using XP online at this point. Security updates for it ended in April, 2014 -- you're a sitting duck for being hacked, wireless encryption notwithstanding.

uid · Answer

I did not find any fixes in SP3 which would address WPA2. Do you know which particular one it is? Thanks

ejn63 · Answer

SP3 includes WPA2 support for XP.  < > You may want to see the link above.

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