Fix for Wifi Adapter not working - no WiFi

A WiFi Fix Without Rebooting PC

By Strictly Software

I just woke up again on my laptop at 5am, and the keyboard had all changed, I noticed as I went onto YouTube to post a video onto Twitter about the US Government wanting to spy on everyone's text messages and stop any that contain mis-information. 

Now if the US does it then you can be sure the UK GOV will follow as we are already halfway down that slippery wedge towards dystopia. The UK is already becoming a police state using COVID as the cover to implement draconian laws as everyone is worrying about this or that variant and whether or not to get a vaccine just to get a passport that will control your social life, and allow total monitoring of your activities by the Government. 

You can watch the video below about the invasion of US citizens privacy here. What happens in the US usually comes to the UK soon after but when it comes to mass surveillance the NSA like to use GCHQ to test their Prism algorithms and mass home population surveillance techniques out on 1st before using it back home. 

Why? Well because we don't have a real written down constitution or Bill of Rights that protect citizen freedoms is the main reason. The 2nd is our constant desire to be bed buddies with the US, in our "Special Relationship", and keep them sweet by being useful to them, hoping for a share in their data gathering techniques.

I noticed the keyboard change when I went to put a hash tag in and got a | pipe instead and the " quotes were an @ sign. So I did the quick fix I outlined from the other night > "Quick Fix To Keyboard Layout Change"

However I was trying to tweet this out from YouTube to Twitter. Twitters site was up, and I kept pressing "Tweet" but it kept responding with a "There is a problem, try again" message after 20 seconds of non activity.

It was obviously using AJAX as the page didn't refresh, but a quick ping to Twitter.com came back with no server response. It was then I noticed that somehow my WiFi had gone, saying my connection to my router was weak.

Sites that use AJAX for everything, especially posting, should really be able to tell if you are online or not as the reason for a post not appearing. 

Rather than freaking out someone as the site is still on the screen, and most of the API is in JavaScript so you can still hit buttons and get the impression you are online. There must be a load of ways that after 3 failed post attempts or even 1, that an AJAX API could tell you that you were no longer online in a message.

A method that when you press the button sees if you can remotely access a site that is always up, for instance, would be easy. Then the error message could notify you that you are offline. If they just did a FORM submission when posting Tweets instead of using AJAX you would instantly know anyway from the "No Internet Access" page your web browser would bring up.

So once I had found out that I could not PING Twitter, I checked my Wi-Fi status and it said I had a weak connection to my router. 

Now before I did the keyboard fix, I was online and everything was okay, so I don't know if somehow that quick hot key fix could somehow cause your Wi-Fi adapter to fail, but the two actions seem causally linked. 

So I went to the built in Windows "Troubleshoot Problems" wizard you get when you click on your WiFi symbol in your Desk Tray to run a diagnostic test that clears the DNS, resets your router and adapter and then tries to ping an outside site to see if you have Internet connectivity restored again or a problem accessing the Internet.

I was getting back 3 error messages saying I was offline, my RealTek Wi-Fi adapter was not working, and a default Wi-Fi adapter message, The wizards cure for the problem was to use Ethernet cables but I am not linking loads of cables together just to get round this simple problem.

Usually at first I just try to turn Flight Mode on/off and see if that changes the number of Wi-Fi routers that appear in my list. 

If it doesn't and I turn Wi-Fi on/off and that still doesn't show my router then one way to fix it is to just log out and log back in again - or reboot if you want to.

However a quicker fix I have found to this commonly occurring RealTek (HP) laptop Wi-Fi adapter problem is to first go to the Device Manager app, under the Windows key, bottom left corner.

I then just go to the Network Adapters section and a load will pop up, if the RealTek Wireless LAN is out of action, usually a red cross will appear next to it. 

In this screenshot I had already fixed it so I wasn't going to try and break it again on purpose just to get a real screenshot. However a red cross next to the adapter having problems is usually the sign you need to double click that adapter and open the menu for it.

I usually try both the "Update Driver Software" and "Scan for hardware changes" options to see which one fixes it but usually one does. It is a lot easier than having to save all your work, remember which files were open, and reboot your laptop.

After fixing the adapter in Device Manager I always run another diagnostic test to ensure there is no other problems but usually my Wi-Fi is instantly restored as the router comes back online and the adapter connects to it.

I always finish off with a quick ping to the site I was on to ensure even though I am online they are too but you can easily skip this step.

And hey ho, I am back online, not banned from Twitter which was on of my 1st thoughts when they couldn't post a Tweet and give me an "offline" status error message. 

However that is the problem with sites that are full of API Jizz, they use it so much they cannot even show you the simplest message at times when all you need to know is that you are offline.

I hope the fix for the keyboard change is not related to the Wi-Fi adapter change but it could be somehow, it's just odd how I was online with a wrong keyboard layout, then I did the quick fix to reset it and then became offline. 

If anyone knows any reason the two might be connected please let me know.

Thanks.....

By Strictly Software

© 2021 Strictly Software

Find Any WiFi Password on a Windows Computer

Find Any WiFi Password on a Windows computer

By Strictly-Software

The title is a little misleading as it doesn't bring you back to the early 2000's and let you go driving around estates with a laptop, breaking into password encrypted WiFi routers. Not that you used to need to as in most estates your computer could pick up an unlocked router or three without a problem.

This is slightly different in it allows you to find ANY password that belongs to a router your PC/Laptop has been connected to in the past.

You may not like writing things down and have had a memory slip or you haven't used the router for so long the password escapes any looks for it.

First - Find out what you can access

This bit allows us to find out all the WiFi routers such as friends routers and gadgets like Chromecast that you have forgotten the password to.

Open your command prompt in administrator mode otherwise this won't work.

Once you have your command prompt up lets find out what WiFi spots we have connected to in the past or have access to. If you were around a friends one time and connected but forgot the password then you may need to use this to re-gain it if his WiFi router is in the list.

Type the following into the prompt: netsh wlan show profiles

It should then list all the routers you have had connections to from the computer you are on.

C:\Windows\system32>netsh wlan show profiles 

User profiles
-------------
    All User Profile     : Chromecast1034
    All User Profile     : BTHub4-NX23
    All User Profile     : TALKTALK-3ERA24
    All User Profile     : virginmedia8817891
    All User Profile     : strictlywifi10x
    All User Profile     : strictly-ukhorse-air

Now we have a list of spots and we pick the one we need the password for. The command is pretty similar to the preceding one it just needs the routers name added to it and the term key=clear. If you don't add this to the end then you won't get to view the password in clear text.

netsh wlan show profile BTHub4-NX23 key=clear

This will give you detailed info on the router, whether it connects automatically, authentication mode e.g WPA2 and even details of your current cost and whether you are over the data limit set by your provider.

Lets try and find the password for the connection BTHub4-NX23

C:\Windows\system32>netsh wlan show profile BTHub4-NX23 key=clear

Profile BTHub4-NX23 on interface WiFi:
=======================================================================

Applied: All User Profile

Profile information
-------------------
    Version                : 1
    Type                   : Wireless LAN
    Name                   : BTHub4-NX23
    Control options        :
        Connection mode    : Connect automatically
        Network broadcast  : Connect only if this network is broadcasting
        AutoSwitch         : Do not switch to other networks

Connectivity settings
---------------------
    Number of SSIDs        : 1
    SSID name              : "BTHub4-NX23"
    Network type           : Infrastructure
    Radio type             : [ Any Radio Type ]
    Vendor extension          : Not present

Security settings
-----------------
    Authentication         : WPA2-Personal
    Cipher                 : CCMP
    Security key           : Present
    Key Content            : r85583569z

Cost settings
-------------
    Cost                   : Unrestricted
    Congested              : No
    Approaching Data Limit : No
    Over Data Limit        : No
    Roaming                : No
    Cost Source            : Default

As you can see from the Key Content section the password for this router is r85583569z.

Open the WiFi section on your desktop and connect by adding the key and it should connect. If not you have a problem.

So if you don't like writing passwords down or just want to use your mates WiFi without spending hours hunting down where he put his WiFi routers login details then this trick can come in handy.

By Strictly-Software


© 2017 Strictly-Software

Windows 8 and Windows 8 RT - Issues and Workarounds to get Windows 8.1 behaviour

Getting around Window 8's issues

By Strictly-Software

I use Windows 8.1 (proper version - thank god) but if you are stuck on Windows 8 or the Windows 8 RT version you should upgrade to Windows 8.1 ASAP as the design of Windows 8 was so that they could use the same display format for both phones, tablets, PC's and laptops.

The problem was that the techies didn't want numptified hidden away features behind a design obviously meant for touch screens and not for coders.

So they introduced Windows 8 RT which was a sort of half way house between Win 8.1 and Win 8 as they realised they were going to have another Vista issue where people hated the OS and many skipped over it or stayed with the previous version anyway Windows XP (I know I did!).

So when they realised they had another Vista/XP issue on their hands they rolled out Win 8 RT which tried to get rid of the main tablet screen and have am option to get back to a normal desktop screen.

Windows 8.1 was a total reverse of Windows 8 with the desktop as the main screen and the horrible tablets accessible by the home button.

As the article says:

If your PC is currently running Windows 8 or Windows RT, it's free to update to Windows 8.1 or Windows RT 8.1. And unlike previous updates to Windows, you'll get this update from the Windows Store.

by following this Windows Knowledge Base article: upgrade from Windows 8.0 or 8.1 RT to Windows 8.1.

Making some changes

The first thing I hated about the OS was that the mouse would change the size of the screen without me asking it to. In Chrome or elsewhere I was constantly manually putting the screen size back to normal ratio 100%.

In fact the mouse was moving so fast I couldn't hardly see it and I needed to make some changes. The list below are those I made.

Increasing the size and changing the colour of the mouse

I changed the colour of the mouse using the "Pointers" tab where you can pick the group of pointers you want to use to "Windows Black (extra large)" in the top selection and in the bottom I chose "Normal Select".

     

Now I could see the cursor much easier due to the colour change as most programs have a white background so a white cursor with a black border is not very helpful.

Changing the auto drag that the mouse does

One of the annoying things about Windows 8+ is the auto drag ability of the mouse which enables you to highlight or drag features without using the CTRL key.

You can turn this off in the "Buttons" > "Click Lock" panel by de-selecting the "Turn on Click Lock" feature.

This was one of the major pains I had when I first used Windows 8.1 especially when I was remote desktopped into my work PC. Then I found a way to turn it off.

Changing the mouse controlling the size of the screen

This is one thing that really pissed me off. When I was surfing the net or just writing a swipe of the mouse would change the whole screen size.

Other Mouse Changes

I also did the following changes in the "Pointer Options" tab I changed the pointer speed to a slower one.

With a bigger black pointer it helps a lot. I also did the following.

• I chose to "Automatically move pointer to default selection in a dialogue box". No point hunting for CTRL keys is there! 
• I chose to "Show location of the pointer when the CTRL key is hit" 
• A nice circle appears helping you find the cursor. 
• I disabled the "Hide pointer when typing" option so that I can always see the cursor.

Other Windows 8.1 Programs

With all the numptyfictation going on with the Windows tablet format there are some actual applications that can help you without going command line.

Even though the start bar is pretty crap you can either use the "Search" function to find an app or just go into the app page and start typing. The words will just start to appear in a search box in the top right of the page e.g "Paint" to get the Paint application.

The Windows App Store is one of the great features that Windows 8 has introduced and there are lots of great programs you can download for free including "Live TV" to get TV from freeview channels as well as US and European TV shoes.

With WiFi and network connectivity you want to check that your broadband speed is fast and everything is okay. One of these programs is "Network Speed Test" which you can get from the App Store.

This application tests your broadband or WiFi speed and tells you whether you would have the capabilities of downloading high or low quality video, your internet status, network details and other ISP related information.

So now you know how to get Windows 8.1 features, change some annoying ones in the OS related to mouse usage and use the Windows App Store to download apps to test your WiFi for you.

You should now be on your way.