Dongle connecting to my Macbook Pro but not iMac?

See this thread - USB WiFi adapter that works with M1 Mac - Apple Community

I don't see anything on the web to suggest much has changed in the past year or so. The suggestion there is likely your best best (using a pocket/travel router of your preference, of course).

You may have some driver-related issue, where software that you were using on the old machine won't work on the new one, either because of

• Low-level security changes to macOS (that have made some system extension methods stop working), or
• The switch from Intel chips to Apple Silicon chips (Rosetta can run application code in translation but cannot run system code in translation)

Have you tried looking on the adapter manufacturer's Web site for support articles and/or downloads?

We can give you the best answers if you will please tell us exactly which macOS version you were running on the 2013 MacBook Pro.

And exactly the model of the D-Link wi-fi dongle.

Thanks.

vero2007 wrote:

Thank you for your answer and will you help!

I am running Catalina 10.15.7 on the MacBook Pro (cannot do any further upgrades).

I’m running Ventura 13.2.1 on the iMac.

The dongle is a D-Link DWM-222.

Thank you again for trying to help!

You're welcome.

The D-Link DWM-222 appears to be rather olde tech. I say that because its specs describe using USB 2.0 and a minimum system requirement for Mac of "OS X 10.5 or higher". Drivers and software for 10.5 Leopard (2007) thru 10.14 Mojave would likely be 32-bit coded and would have been updated to 64-bits to work with 10.15 Catalina.

Since the introduction of macOS 11 Big Sur there have been some changes, including the move away from Intel CPUs to Macs with Apple Silicon. I will not be surprised if D-Link has not updated their software to take advantage of these changes.

Have you contacted D-Link directly with your concerns? I'd start there and ask if their dongle works under your current version of macOS and with Macs using Apple Silicon M-series chips.

Why are you attempting to use the silly thing, iMacs have had built in Wi-Fi for over 20 years!