Possible to use old external wireless usb (for Win XP) on PC running Win 8.1? If not, external wireless usb recommendations?

I have an 5-7 year old Sony Vaio VGN-FW270J. 4 GB Ram, 512 ROM on 5400 rpm HDD, Intel Core Duo running at 2.26Ghz. It came with Windows Vista, but I upgraded to Win 8 and then to 8.1 Pro. (I now wish I'd spent more to just upgrade to Win 7, but that's water under the bridge.)

It has built-in wifi, but it has an external on/off switch for it, and that switch got stuck (after I paid a computer tech to fix the power jack, so I think it's related to how he reassembled the computer). Well, I foolishly pried the switch to try to loosen it, and it came too loose, a little plastic piece fell out of the body with a bit of silvery metal on one end. My guess is that I've irreparably broken the wireless switch beyond the capability of a simple fix.

My first thought was to bypass the switch entirely. It seems so stupid that a broken plastic switch should turn a perfectly good internal wifi antennae into a brick. Particularly given how small and delicate this switch really is -- destined to break sooner or later (like the power jack connection, for that matter). However, the apparent answer is that there's no way to internally bypass this switch, it's a hardwired kill switch. If anyone knows this to be wrong and can point me to how to bypass it, then that would be ideal.

Giving up on that, though, I next dug out an old external wireless USB -- Netgear WG111 -- that I got years ago from a cable internet company back when I had a computer without internal wifi. From my google research, it seems that this does not just work with Netgear modem/routers, but should work with other modems. At this time, I have my wifi through Uverse which seems to have its own proprietary modem/router.

In device manager, I was told I had no driver for this device when I plugged it in (it was recognized at least). So I found the driver, downloaded and installed it. It apparently installed because I now have a netgear folder under Programsx86, and I have a desktop shortcut for Netgear Smart Wizard. But my device manager still says there's no driver for this device. I tried manually pointing the manager to find the driver in the netgear folder, no luck. I then troubleshot the Netgear smart wizard and found out it needs to run in Win. XP(sp3) so put it in compatibility mode for that,and ran it again. Still nothing happens, still says I have no wifi.

One funny thing, though. Back when my wifi switch was working on the computer, it made a certain distinct sound when I turned wifi on and off, and it had an orange light that would come on when wifi was connected. Well, when I plug in this Netgear external wireless usb, it makes that wifi-connected sound, and when I unplug it, it makes the wifi-disconnected sound. Oh, and at least some of the time that I plug it in (but not ever time) the orange wife-connected light comes on. So internally, the computer is recognizing this as a wireless router to some degree. But even with that orange light on, I cannot connect to the internet.

My last thought is that, in Network & Sharing / Network Connections, I see two options -- my hard line "Ethernet" and "Wi-Fi" which says it connects via Intel(R) WiFi Link 5100 AGN (the internal wi-fi ). Should the external wi-fi usb come up as a third entry in this folder, or should the Netgear replace the Intel(R) as the "connected with" under the properties for existing Wi-Fi item? If I disable or even delete or uninstall the Intel(R) (so that is not an option) will that "force" the computer to see the netgear as an option?

I am getting to the point, if not past it, when the time I'm wasting is worth more than the cost of a brand new external wireless usb (or even a new laptop). So if there's no easy fix for this, I'd like to run out to Fry's or somewhere to pick up an external wireless usb that will work with Win 8.1 and connect to the standard U-verse modem router. I'm currently self / un - employed, so cheaper is better, but I'd rather pay more if it means avoiding more problems / hassles from cheap workmanship.

Thanks!

Ken

 

Buy a new wireless USB adapter. That thing is 802.11b which is very slow. I own one of those too actually, lol. Get one of these and be done with it: http://www.amazon.com/TP-LINK-TL-WN725N-Wireless-Adapter-Miniature/dp/B008IFXQFU Or choose one of the 300 or 600Mbps options if your router is capable.