Wireless-N Adapter in Win 7 64-bit?

Question

I've had some trouble getting my wireless card working in my new Windows 7 64-bit environment. I've read that a lot of people have had compatibility problems between Wi-fi adapters and 64-bit - what adapter do you folks recommend that you know will work?

I started with a Trendnet PCI-mounted adapter and windows simply wouldn't even recognize that I had a device plugged in, never mind getting the drivers working. I am not at home right now so I don't have access to the exact model.

I went to Microcenter and picked up a Hawking HWUN3 (I want wireless-N) but after two hours on the phone with tech support they told me that it looked like they simply don't have the drivers available for independent download - you have to get the .exe with the whole software package and that was for whatever reason not able to work.

So before I go buy a random third wi-fi adapter I thought I would ask - what do you guys use and know works with Win 7 64-bit? :)

Answer 1

It is hard to recommend any over any others - Nearly all modern wireless adapters that are on the market right now (especially N based devices as these are newer) are fully compatible with Windows 7.

If you want to spend a bit extra, look for the made for / compatible with Windows 7 logo... Generally these are a bit more expensive as testing costs money, but you are guaranteed that it is fully compatible in any/every scenario. (x86 and x64)

Although, personally for me, for home machines, I just look for the cheapest place that has a Realtek chip on it - nearly all wireless cards from unknown manufacturers contain one of a handfull of reference designs and I have never had a problem with the Realtek ones*.

*In Windows Vista, the built in driver is rubbish and broken at connecting to WPA2 based networks - I always have a copy of the latest version (unbranded and direct from Realtek) available on my usb stick. Even though Windows 7's built in support is better, I would still use the newest version from their site.