On a sunny day (Mon, 19 Mar 2018 13:46:04 +0000) it happened RobH
 wrote in :

>I use ifconfig to find the devices ip addresses, but when the Pi3 is not
>hardwired, wifi does not work, and even typing the ip address in a web
>browser fails.

Yes, maybe my approach is different
I usually ssh -Y PI_IP_ADDRESS from a PC on the LAN (wired),
and can then do anything I like with the pi and its WiFi.
Then it is easy to check if the dongle (or on board Wifi) is working or not.
Or connect it to a keyboard an HDMI monitor, same thing.

So if you, using wired connection,  ssh to it from some PC, then what does
wlconfig show?

panteltje12: ~# ssh -Y pi@192.168.178.73
pi@192.168.178.73's password:
Warning: No xauth data; using fake authentication data for X11 forwarding.
Linux raspberrypi 3.6.11+ #371 PREEMPT Thu Feb 7 16:31:35 GMT 2013 armv6l
Last login: Sat Mar 17 20:44:19 2018 from panteltje12
root@raspberrypi:~# iwconfig
lo        no wireless extensions.

eth0      no wireless extensions.

root@raspberrypi:~# uptime
 16:05:50 up 5 days,  8:55, 10 users,  load average: 2.97, 2.93, 2.84

its easy
mm 2013, been a long time, thing is on 24/7
Reliable things those raspberries.

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