Home / Driver Updater / Ethernet / network adapter
The cable is in, the router light blinks, and Windows says “Unidentified network” or shows nothing at all. Or Device Manager has “Ethernet Controller” under Other devices with a yellow triangle, right after a clean install. Wired adapters from Realtek, Intel, Broadcom and Killer need their own driver, and Windows does not always have it. The free scan identifies the adapter and shows the driver it needs.
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Windows is fresh and there is no connection at all: the “Ethernet Controller” entry has no driver and Windows Update cannot reach anything to fix it.
The cable works on another PC, but here the adapter shows no connection or an unidentified network. An old or generic driver, or power saving on the adapter, is the usual cause.
Device Manager shows the Realtek, Intel I219 or Broadcom NetLink adapter with code 10, 31 or 56, or the connection drops to 100 Mbps and back.
A USB network adapter on a laptop without a port shows up as an unknown device. ASIX, Realtek RTL8153 and CH9200 chips need their driver on Windows 10 and 11 too.
A free scan can identify the installed hardware and show available driver information.
These are the standard Windows checks - they take a few minutes and sometimes do the trick:
The weak spot of the manual route: at the "Update driver" step Windows searches only its own catalog, which is often missing or outdated for the exact model - it can report that the best driver is already installed even when a newer one exists. The free scan checks your devices against a database of 1,000,000+ drivers, so one pass shows whether better versions are available.
The application identifies the hardware installed on your PC and checks the current driver information.
See detected devices, installed driver versions and available updates. Nothing changes during the scan.
Review the results and decide which available updates you want to apply.
A license is required only if you choose to apply the available updates.
| Searching manually | Automatic detection |
|---|---|
| −Find the exact device model | ✓Installed hardware is identified |
| −Search by Hardware ID | ✓No Hardware ID required |
| −Compare versions and architecture | ✓System and driver details are shown |
| −Check devices separately | ✓Multiple devices are checked together |
It does not download anything without a connection - nothing does. First get online through USB tethering from a phone or a Wi-Fi adapter, which takes a minute, then run the scan: it identifies the wired adapter by its hardware ID and installs its driver, so the cable works after that without the phone.
That is the Realtek adapter found on most desktops and laptops. Windows ships a basic version of its driver; the maker's version fixes the code 10/31 errors, the 100 Mbps drops and the “network cable unplugged” after sleep. The scan shows which version is installed and whether a newer one exists.
No - Wi-Fi adapters have their own page on this site. This one is for the wired port, USB-to-Ethernet adapters and the case where a fresh Windows has no network driver at all.
No. Nothing changes during the scan. Driver updates are applied only after you review the results and choose what to update.
Yes. Each detected item can be reviewed, applied or skipped individually. Backup and restore options are available before updates are applied, so a previous driver version can be restored if necessary.
The button downloads Outbyte Driver Updater, a Windows desktop application. The website itself does not scan your computer in the browser - the check runs in the application after you install and start it.
The scan and results are free. A license is required only if you choose to download and apply the available updates. Current pricing and license terms are shown before purchase.
Supports Windows 11 and 10 · Uninstall anytime via Settings → Apps · If no updates are found, the scan still shows the current driver state of your devices.
Run a free scan to check the drivers this PC is using and see available updates.