Realtek 8185 WLAN adapter won't recognize network

Hi all: It's been a while since I've been on, my computers and devices have (for the most part) been behaving themselves...but I have a strange issue that I cannot for the life of me figure out.

I have a "frankenstein" type computer, cobbled from several types of units. The friend who put it together for me is no longer in the area. It's got an ACER Aspire M5800 motherboard and Intel CPU Q9-400 @ 2.66GHz. The WLAN utility is a Realtek 8185 WLAN network adapter. It uses Windows 7 x64.

I checked to see if there was anything helpful on the forum, but to no avail. I also ran CCleaner, chkdsk /f, and the scan thingy; there has been no change. I also uninstalled the drivers for the Realtek, and when it rebooted, the computer said they were installed properly.

I recently purchased a cable modem (to get away from Time Warner Cable's draconian rental policy of their modem, but that's another story.) I did not realize I needed a cable modem router, but just got the cable modem. After 2 hours of tech help from TWC and the cable modem people (who would only help me up to their equipment working) I bought a D-Link DIR-655 router and set up encryption, network name, etc. I have another PC that connects fine to the Internet, 2 iPhones, an iPad, and Apple TV that are all happily buzzing along. However, my franken-CPU gives me the error message "No network connections available." I cannot get the Realtek utility to recognize anything. I checked the networking devices and the Realtek (and something else called Intel 82567V-2 Gigabit Network Connection) are both working properly. On the Intel unit, the "Adaptive Inter-Frame Spacing" is disabled. So is the "Flow Control."

The Realtek utility will not recognize our network name, nor will it let me add the network.

I'm going to download the latest drivers from Realtek and try to upload them, and see if that helps.

Any help is greatly appreciated...I'm sure I'm forgetting some important stuff, so just let me know what else I need to post. Thank you!!!

 

You do not need any third party utility to get you connected to the router. The 8185 chipset only does Wireless-b WPA(tkip). There is also a version that does Wireless-a/b/g, and one that does only Wireless-b/g. All would be WPA(tkip) security.

Suggest you swap out the wifi card, and get a more up to date one, or use a USB adapter for wifi. Rosewell adapters are great deal for the money. You can pick them up on newegg.com for under $15 for a Wireless-N capable card.

 

Thanks, Browniz. That's exactly the conclusion I'd come to. Also thanks for the info about the settings. :-D