Adding a WiFi adapter or dongle to your Windows Server 2019 server

This is useful when RJ45 ethernet connection is not available or when the network switch does not have any more spare ports to connect to. But getting WiFi ability enabled on Windows Server requires a little bit more work.

First, I purchased an inexpensive USB WiFi adapter/dongle. This is an USB 2.0 802.11AC WiFi adapter/dongle.

This thing is really small.

Here’s a size comparison against a AA battery

As this WiFi adapter uses the Realtek RTL8811AU chipset, the next step for me is to look for the driver on Realtek’s website. It did come with a driver CD, but I thought it would be better to install the latest driver from the website.

There’s no driver specifically for Windows Server OS, however, there is a workaround.

(Note: this WiFi adapter will work in a Windows 10 without additional driver installation).

Here’s the link to the windows driver:

https://www.realtek.com/en/component/zoo/category/rtl8811au-software

The direct file (0002-Realtek_WindowsDriver_1030.25.0701.2017.zip) download link here.

After the file have been downloaded, unzip the files into a folder.

Inserted the WiFi adapter into the USB and it gets detected as “802.11ac WLAN Adapter”

Right click on the device and select Update driver.

 

Select “Browse my computer for driver software”

Click Browse and locate the folder where the drivers are unzipped.

Look for the folder “RTWLANU Driver” and Select “VistaX64” folder.

Note: All other “X64” OS drivers will not work on Windows Server 2019.

Click next and the drivers will proceed to be installed. If all goes well, driver installation will be successful.

Going into the Device Manager to double check, the WiFi adapter should appear in the correct category in Device Manager.

Remember to install the “Wireless LAN Service” to enable the wireless function.

To remove the device from the USB port, go to the system tray and single left click on the USB (Safely Remove Hardware and Eject Media) icon.

Select this item to “eject” and you will be good to unplug the dongle.

It’s safe to remove the adapter now when you see this message.

To purchase one of these WiFi dongle, here’s 2 sites you can take a look.

1.      Aliexpress; Similar dongle, other options here.

2.       Amazon: Similar dongle, other options here.

That’s It.

Hopefully this helps.