Question USB Tethering/Wireless hotspot issue + No wireless connections being shown

[Estarossa]

Hi, i'm having a few issues currently and have tried googling them but not found any fix. First issue is that my computer is not showing any wireless connections as you can see in the image below, it doesn't display any wireless connections available in my home or in my area. Secondly i'm unable to USB Tether with my phone data to my computer, i've tested with my Laptop and on the laptop, both usb tethering and wireless hotspot connection to the laptop works perfectly fine. However since i can't see any wireless connections on my computer, i can't try to connenct to the hotspot wirelessly so my only choice is to usb tether but that doesn't work either as the little red cross indicates no connection. There's nothing wrong with my phone or any settings since the same settings work fine on my laptop. Also there's a little error icon that shows the message below in the screenshot when i double click it. I need some help on how i can start seeing wireless connections again on my computer and also why usb tethering doesn't work.
Appreciate any help as i've been trying to fix this issue for quite some time now but i've simply gotten no where from google and visiting forums so my only hope is to post in tech help sections on this website, thanks!

https://imgur.com/BWESWxF

https://imgur.com/kVfI1Js

https://i.imgur.com/HAWn6rY.jpg

 

[Estarossa]

Ok so it seems my computer doesn't have a wireless adaptor, however i can't seem to understand why the usb tethering is not working. As you can see in the picture the red cross is there and it doesn't seem to be connected even though i've done everything correctly as it works on my laptop but not PC.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Ok so it seems my computer doesn't have a wireless adaptor,

Was just going to suggest that, actually, and ask if you knew for sure that you even had wifi on the desktop. (most don't)

For USB tethering, that may require phone-specific software to be installed onto the PC, and/or phone configuration.

Honestly, just buy a Wifi adapter for $10 off of ebay, and use the phone's wifi hotspot feature. That's the easiest and most direct way.

 

[Estarossa]

Hi, thanks for the reply. Yes there is the option to buy a wireless adaptor for £10 locally, however i'd really like to fix the usb tethering issue. So you say that i may need to install phone specific software on my computer, however on my sisters laptop i didn't install anything and the tethering worked fine, so did the hotspot since the laptop has built in wifi adaptor. So i don't understand why my PC requires special software while Laptop doesn't?

 

[VirtualLarry]

What operating system is on your Desktop? It doesn't look like Windows 10.

 

[Estarossa]

It's windows 7 64bit

 

[VirtualLarry]

Yeah, Windows 10 has a lot of new features to interface with Android phones. I don't know if Windows 7 has built-in USB tethering support for Android phones. I think that you need to download and install software from your phone mfg (not your carrier), to get it to work in Windows 7.

 

[Estarossa]

I see, i have no idea where i would go to find such software. Samsung website has no mention of software like this. samsung s8+

 

[VirtualLarry]

http://eguides.sprint.com/support/e...t/samsung_galaxy_s8_s8_plus_ug/tethering.html

https://www.verizonwireless.com/support/knowledge-base-211213/

https://support.t-mobile.com/docs/DOC-34267

Note that some of those, mention that you need to have a tethering add-on to your phone plan, in order to use USB or BT tethering.

 

[Estarossa]

I'm from the united kingdom so i don't think USA carriers will apply to me. Also i'm sure usb tethering works fine because i tested on my siblings laptop and it's all fine on there so i think it's more of a technical issue as if there was something wrong with my data/phone plan, i would not be able to use tethering on laptop. I have (Three) which is uk mobile carrier, but i need samsung software right? it doesn't have anything to do with the actual phone carrier, only the phone/samsung right?

 

[VirtualLarry]

One of those three links mentions/links some software from Samsung. Does your Android phone come up with a menu, when you plug in the USB plug?

Ok, I disabled both my Ethernet and Wifi on my Windows 10 1809 Desktop PC, and my Android 7.x phone, and plugged my phone into my PC, and went into Settings, Connections, Mobile Hotspot and Tethering, and enabled the USB Tethering option.

It's apparently working, I think.

 

[Estarossa]

I installed the software listed in one of the links "smart switch" though i think this is for transferring files and stuff which i can already do without anay software. No menu appears on my phone, i dont think its supposed to as it doesnt when i usb tether on laptop, once i've turned on usb tethering in the options on my phone then it should start working.

 

[VirtualLarry]

What does the Network Neighborhood, "Show Adapters" show? Does it show up as a "Remote NDIS adapter" in there?

If you have some sort of "Security Suite" software installed, you might need to "Allow this Network Adapter" to access the internet over it.

 

[Estarossa]

I don't use anything besides comodo firewall and i've tried disabling that and seeing if it made any difference, unfortunately it didn't. Network neighborhood? i'm not sure what you mean by this, the control panel section where it shows all the connections/adaptors?

 

[VirtualLarry]

Yes. Does a "Remote NDIS Adapter" show up there? What is its status?

 

[VirtualLarry]

You might try asking around on BleepingComputer forums, I think that they might have a Comodo forum. Your issue might just be a firewall configuration issue.

But I'll continue to try to help here, if you like.

 

[Estarossa]

Yes i don't mind any help! I have registered on bleepingcomputer and a few other forums, unfortunately no responses so far.
Ok so earlier i bought a wireless usb adapter for £10 and got that working so hotspot is working with that now. Just now i disabled that and connected my usb to phone and computer to check whether it says "remote ndis adapter" or not. When i connected it, it recognized the device as "unknowndevice"? and short popup saying it was installing the device driver and now it seems to be working fine. I'm not even sure what the issue was and why it suddenly got fixed. I only installed the wireless usb adapter i bought and tested hotspot on it, also i downloaded the samsung software in one of the links you provided me earlier. So maybe that helped it recognize or something as in the original post in the third screenshot i posted, it shows 'device driver failed to install so now it successfully installed it possibly due to the samsung software or something else, no idea. I'd like to thank you for your support, i posted the same issue on 5 different tech forums but you are the only one who helped so thanks and hopefully i don't run into more issues!

 

[VirtualLarry]

Well, you're welcome. I don't know why it worked now, but not before, but I'm glad that some of my suggestions apparently helped. Sometimes, Windows' can be mysterious...

(Maybe the Samsung software installed some driver files?)