AC 7660 doesn't see my router

[Jjycby]

I have a Dell Latitude E7440 with an AC 7260 network card.  My driver is 18.33.9.3.  I have a relatively new Orbi mesh router and my laptop is unable to see the router.  My laptop does see several other neighborhood routers.  I tried updating the driver on the Intel website to proset 12.10.1 which is supposed to have driver 18.33.17.1, but I keep showing 18.33.9.3 or 18.33.11.2.  I bought a cheap usb network card and it DID connect.  However it had poor performance overall.  Consequently, I'd like to get my 7260 to cooperate.  Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[n_scott_pearson]

The final driver release for the (discontinued) Wireless-AC 7260 module can be downloaded from here:

• Wireless: https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/28621.
• Bluetooth: https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/28622.

Hope this helps,

...S

[Jjycby]

Unfortunately that’s the driver I have. Is there a newer replacement for the adapter that I could swap out?

[n_scott_pearson]

No. What part of "final release" didn't you understand?
...S

[Jjycby]

I think you misread my last post. I wasn’t asking if there is an updated driver. Instead I was asking if there is a newer model of the adapter card that I could replace the 7260 with.

[n_scott_pearson]

Ah, you're right, I did. What a waste of a good indignant.

The Wireless-AC 7260 card is an example of a PCIe Half Mini Card form factor device. I refer to this form factor as the M.1 form factor. This form factor, along with the PCIe Mini Card form factor (which supported mSATA SSDs), is in the process of being superseded by the M.2 form factors (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M.2 for a good summary). As a result, there are very few Intel PCIe Half Mini Card devices that have not already been discontinued.

As you can see in the cheat sheet that I maintain (attached), only the Wireless-AC 3165 (model 3165HMW) and Wireless-AC 7265 (model 7265HMW) have not been discontinued. You should also see that the Wireless-AC 7265 sports significantly better performance than the Wireless-AC 3165. Consequently, my first recommendation is the Wireless-AC 7265. Here is example for ordering purposes: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MV3N7UO. 

Now, Wireless-AC 7265 must be considered as being only a replacement for your existing card. The other possibility to be considered is an upgrade. Intel has new adapters that support Wireless-AX, WiFi 6, Bluetooth 5.1 and 2400Mb/s throughput. The problem is that Intel only builds cards in the M.2 form factor. It seemed reasonable that the component could be used on a M.1 form factor card, however, so I went looking for a 3rd-party implementation - and was successful. On NewEgg, I found this module: https://www.newegg.com/derapid-mpe-ax3000h-mini-pci-express/p/0XM-02WM-00014. I purchased one of these to try it out and it worked perfectly for me, so it's my second suggestion. I caution you though, you will also need a Wireless-AX router to really make use of its additional throughput.

Hope this helps,

…S

[Jjycby]

My router is AX so I’m gonna try and the NewEgg solution. Thanks for your help.