LB-LINK WDN650A wifi adapter not seen by Zorin 16.3

[Thom05]

I had just installed 16.3 on my desktop after months of trying to get replacement wifi adapter. I had win 7 on this pc, which is still a good enough gaming setup, but now it seems I had shot both my legs off...

the adapter/dongle I got was the LB-LINK WDN650A, for it's speed, but now I see on their site it says that the linux driver must be built if you want linux to use it... UGH!!!

Zorin does not even recognise that a usb had been inserted, let alone install it's drivers. Somehow the youtube remedies do not work, and I do not have a 25m data cable to reach the router. I need to download and manually install. I did make sure that the adapter is working.

I desperately need to get this pc sorted asap.... oh and I have no idea about any linux jargon. I chose Zorin as i like that my windows programs can run on it. please please help....

[zabadabadoo]

From my websearches, it looks like that AC650 USB wifi dongle uses Realtek RTL8811CU chip.
You could have a look at this item to see if anything helps:

Using a Mercusys AC650 usb wifi on in Ubuntu 20.04

[swarfendor437]

Having looked at the BL-Link website it indicates that it does have a realtek chip in it but no details as to which one. Can you boot your computer with the install media used to install Zorin without the wifi adapter present, then select 'Try Zorin' and once you reach the live desktop, plug in the wifi adapter. If there is no response, unplug the adapter and try a different usb port. Then open a terminal and make a note of the information that comes back from issuing the command:

lsusb