Wireless (Wi-Fi) Drivers

Question

I am not knowledgeable with Drivers and in fact, I just got into them today- Our ISP has been so bad lately and they suggested trying connecting to 5GHz but my Dell Latitude E7250 can only show 2.4GHz networks and I found out about drives. I looked up mine and it's apparently Dell Wireless 1708 802.11b/g/n (2.4GHz), Driver Date: 11/22/2016, Version: 7.35.352.0 and only giving me access to 2.4GHzs. I looked it up and I found out this model can access 5GHzs and so, I looked up how to either update or replace my driver. I checked the official Dell website, looked up my then-current driver and found out it's apparently not even compatible with my laptop. I looked up the Dell Latitude E7250 page and found the drivers suggested by dell. I tried Intel Wireless 8260/7265/3165 Wi-Fi Driver but whenever I tried installing it, it shows me the error: 'This installation is forbidden by system policy. Contact your system administration.'. I tried disabling my then-current driver, rebooted my laptop then tried installing again: same error. Tried uninstalling my then-current driver, rebooted my laptop then tried installing again: same error.  I then realized I'm still connected to the internet and I checked my Device Manager and found Broadcom 802.11n Network Adapter and I'm guessing this is now the wi-fi driver my laptop is using. I'm scared I'll break my laptop doing things I'm not even proficient in and so I didn't try uninstall it and try installing the wi-fi driver suggested by Dell. So, my questions: Would Intel Wireless 8260/7265/3165 Wi-Fi Driver eventually give me access to the 5GHz of our Wi-Fi? Should I uninstall the Broadcom 802.11n Network Adapter? Would uninstalling it make installing Intel Wireless 8260/7265/3165 Wi-Fi Driver work? What do I do?

U2CAMEB4ME · Answer

Welcome to the Dell Community @tchewy

Click on the WiFi symbol in the righthand corner.

You should see two of your WiFi router names listed.

One should have the -5G after the name.

If it is listed are you using that one???

Best regards,

U2

tchewy · Answer

this is from the Broadcom 802.11n:

PCI\VEN_14E4&DEV_4365&SUBSYS_00181028&REV_01
PCI\VEN_14E4&DEV_4365&SUBSYS_00181028
PCI\VEN_14E4&DEV_4365&CC_028000
PCI\VEN_14E4&DEV_4365&CC_0280

I didn't get the chance to get the IDs for Dell Wireless 1708 802.11b/g/n (2.4GHz) though

U2CAMEB4ME · Answer

@tchewy  What is the Hardware ID of the WiFi card. https://www.wikihow.com/Find-Hardware-ID Regards, U2

tchewy · Answer

hello! it only shows the 2.4GHz one   do you think my laptop can't actually support 5GHz? or it's a driver problem? thanks for the response!

ann_droid · Answer

Hi

Dunno.

If you have a smart phone, or even a laptop, there are things that can help...

This is on my smart phone, and will show reception as I wander around the house.

Wi-Fi Channel Androidalyser.png

Your ISP Router/Modem can have 2 channels 2.4 and 5.0 Ghz frequencies, either with the same name and password, which makes transitions easy, OR they can be separate names and passwords.

Wi-Fi Channel Systems.png

Above is a L*sard Systems scanner on a Laptop.

Therefore you may now be able find the appropriate Wi-Fi to connect to.

tchewy · Answer

thanks! i'll check those out

tchewy · Answer

so I tried the scanner on my laptop:

Screenshot (2658).png

the scanner only shows the 2.4GHz ones. I saw the "Interface" section above and yeah, I think I can confirm this is a driver/adapter problem.

Now, my only problem left is installing the drivers--thank you for the suggestion!

Latitude

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