Server 2008 R2 and TP-Link Wireless N adapter (WN851N)

Question

I've recently purchased a wireless network card for my PC running Windows Server 2008 R2. It is a TP-Link WN851N. Under Ubuntu Linux, this card works out of the box. Under Windows XP, it runs after installing the driver. On Windows Server 2008 R2, it doesn't.

There are no Win7 drivers, so I took the manufacturer's advice and installed the Vista x64 driver. Which didn't work. It shows the device as connected, but fails to find any networks. I also tried using the Windows update drivers, which installed some Atheros driver - which had the same problem.

My network is WPA2 from an 802.11 b/g router with WPA2. Any way to get it working?

Solution

Wireless networking isn't configured by default.

Therefore you must go to

Server Manager → Features → Add Feature → Wireless LAN Service

Then it will work as expected.