[SOLVED] Linux driver for a TP-Link WDN3200??

[paulmw]

Like an idiot I forgot to check if there was a linux driver for a TP-Link N600 dualband wifi adapter (serial no: TL-WDN3200 v1) before I bought it

It works fine in winDoze but I can't seem to find any drivers for it for Mint13 which I'm running.

The manufacturer's helpline, after saying they only supported winDozes, eventually put me on to a website ralinktech.com - but that organisation seems to have just had a merger and there aren't any drivers that I can recognise on the new merged website.

Any ideas where to get/adapt a linux driver for it anybody??

Or, if not, what's the best/mostpenguinfriendly 2.4G"n" adapter that anyone can recommend for use in linuxes?

TIA uplines
PaulW

[snison]

You apparently also forgot to check the thread "Before you post in here!"
http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=53&t=1085

[nomko]

There's a thread on the Ubuntu forum about the same device: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1797795. PCLinuxOS forum has a solution: http://www.pclinuxos.com/forum/index.php?topic=107500.0

[paulmw]

Yes - I'm a bit idiotic all round !

Thanks for that link to the thread about making the TP-Link dongle work nomko.

But what I did in the end was just to go and buy an Asus N13 dongle - which claimed on the box to support linux - and having a good amount of confidence in Asus gear in general.

However even though the Mint13 kernel has a driver for the N13 in it, and it recognised it straight off, it kept regularly dropping its connection off - and the only way to reconnect it, so it seemed, was to reboot the whole OS .
So after a bit of googling it seems that the Asus driver is a bit on the flaky side and the best way around this problem was to check that it had a Realtek rtl8192cu chip in it - which it did - and to then download and install the driver for that chip from the Realtek website. Which I did. Now no more drop-out problems.
In case anyone else looks at this query the solution is in the post by "ahallubuntu" halfway down this link:
"Ubuntu Forums > The Ubuntu Forum Community > Ubuntu General Support > Networking & Wireless
[SOLVED] ubuntu 12.04 rtl8192cu connects with bad ip"

And, yes, one does need to blacklist the three lines that the poster talks about at the end of his excellent post (= by "ahallubuntu") otherwise the odd dropout still happens.

And now the "Realtek Wireless LAN driver" shows up as being Activated under "Proprietary Drivers".

Cheers
Paul W