Win7 driver for 802.11n NIC

thx LemP for the reply!

1. the ASUS dual-band wireless adapter model #USB-AC56R
2. the website URL - https://prod.downloadnow.com/s/43/08/08/WLan\_Driver\_802.11n\_Rel.\_4.80.28.7.zip
3. the zip file - WLan_Driver_802.11n_Rel._4.80.28.7.zip

i googled it and found a zip file for download. how do i make Win7 to use it?

You could start by telling us the following:

• the specific model number of your Asus NIC
• the URL of the website from which you downloaded the zip file
• the name of the zip file you downloaded.

A brand-new 802.11n adapter may or may not have a Windows 7 driver. Do the product's specifications indicate that it's compatible with Windows 7?

Asus is a manufacturer for end-user products, like the USB wireless network adapter you bought.

Realtek is a semiconductor manufacturer. They make the chips that companies like Asus put in their products.

thx again for your valuable help, LemP! tho the driver available is for Realtek, i'm assuming it should work for Asus as well. i know the adapter i got is an old version. it just piqued my interest when i found it at a charity store for under $2 - with a separate cradle that i can also use as a USB extension. thought it my help extend my reach for the internet from the "remote" parts of the house. best i can do on a senior's fixed income.

It's always best to avoid third-party driver sites such as downloadnow.com. There's really no way to determine exactly what you're getting -- it may or may not be the driver for the product you think it is, it may or may not be the latest version, and it may or may not be infected with malware.

That being said, the Asus USB-AC56R appears to be a very old product. The Asus support site no longer includes manuals or drivers for this product and only has the "utility" software for Windows XP through 8.1. On the other hand, Windows Update seems to have drivers for Windows 8, 8.1, and 10 -- but not Windows 7 (probably because it's no longer supported by Microsoft). Thus, you're pretty much left to the mercy of third-party sites.

Take a look at this rather long thread in the Windows 10 section of Microsoft Community: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/attention-users-of-asus-usb-ac56-fix-also-works/f77aa1cc-0d7f-4755-ab14-a0ceed3b30ba

The solution offered there didn't work for everyone, but it seemed to work for most. The driver at the Softpedia site is said to be compatible with everything from XP to 10, both 32-bit and 64-bit.

See the original August 8, 2017 post by ukufoo for directions on using this package. The same directions will likely work for the file you downloaded from download now, if you want to try that. Just make sure that the folder with the driver files includes an *.inf file. The link you provided doesn't work for me (perhaps you have to log into the site first), so I can't check for you.