Many Realtek WLAN/LAN Drivers Problematical: Single Solution

[JimHarmon]

After seeing so many posts with 'Realtek Lan Driver' associated with 'Problem' here in the Win 7 forum I decided to post a thread as it is a relatively simple solution and therefore warrants being tried early in the 'fix-it' effort.
My problems began when three significant power failures (3:20am after the opening night of a Hard Rock Cafe, a driver hit a pole with a transformer on it, knocked it about 20 feet, blew out my surge protectors, followed by the BSOD, another power out while chkdsk-ing, hours of xcopy dir, a re-install of win7 etc.) -so, on my spare desktop, I attempted to download the Realtek WLAN Driver RTL8191 8192SE from the OEM site:
www.realtek.cz
After three attempts the resulting three files were three different sizes. 7Zip couldn't unzip any of them.
I took the hint.
I had Googled "Realtek WLAN Driver" with many other links appearing, but the one that I chose was the size it was expected it to be and it worked without errors was at:
TechSpot - Technology News, Reviews and Analysis

"If you can't explain it to a six year old, you don't understand it yourself."

"The only justifiable purpose of political institutions is to ensure the unhindered development of the individual."
Albert Einstein

 

[pebbly]

Hi JimHarman, If I ever have aproblem with wireless drivers from realtek I always visit the manufacturers website Realtek

 

[JimHarmon]

RE: Always get needed drivers from the OEM's site..

Pebbly,

I too, had developed a trust for the OEM - back in the day when customer support was the Holy Grail however recent experiences (with Realtek, Craig Electronics/Tablets, FB app/devs) as well as the exponentially increasing plethora of 'help' posts, continuing for years without resolution present an opportunity for many to develop a valued reputation if they can provide simple alternatives.

It is obvious to me that Seven Forums came to the very same conclusion some time ago and are moving right along quite well.

 

[madcratebuilder]

Good advise. Realtek has a excellent base of open source drivers I use with Linux, both x86 and ARM's. As long as you have a positive identification of the chipset you shouldn't have problems.

 

[JimHarmon]

Thanks for your input MadCrateBuilder, I envy your abilities with Linux!
It must be that Linux avoids the downloaded driver ending up as 'corrupted' and for 7gz to report that it is not an archival file.
I downloaded the driver with the exact same 'name' from TechSpot without similar difficulties so I'm a bit confused. Clearing my confusion, to me, is a minor issue so please don't spend any time attempting to do so...