In today’s computer market, built in wireless capabilities are becoming standard equipment. Almost all laptops and desktops ship wireless ready. The reason is cost. Adding wireless capacity is inexpensive so manufacturers feel almost obligated to include it in their feature list. The consumer perception of the value of added wireless is large so the manufacturers lot of value from an inexpensive inclusion. Wireless is the future, so anything wireless that can be added is going to be a big hit with consumers.

Most consumers today are not very computer savvy. Why should they be? Computers come ready to go out of the box. So, being able to upgrade their desktop or laptop with more memory or a new peripheral can be a daunting task. However, they should be able to check what OS they have, how much memory they have, what programs are installed and if their wireless computer is enabled for wireless. First, check the feature list the computer came with. It will state flat out if the computer is wireless enabled.

Laptops and the Intel Centrino Mobile Technology —–The majority of laptop manufacturers do not explain well what Centrino means but your laptop came with this technology built in that is great. Centrino means that your laptop has wireless networking built in. You don’t have to do anything to make your laptop wireless ready. Intel Centrino is just a name for the combination of the Intel Pentium M processor and Intel’s’ Pro Wireless card. A Centrino sticker will be displayed on your laptop. If you dont see a Centrino sticker check your Device Manager to see if you have a wireless adapter installed.

Desktop Computers —– If you are not sure if your desktop computer has a wireless connection, just turn it around and look for a small antenna sticking out of the back towards the bottom of the case. If you see one then your computer at least has the card needed to be wireless enabled. On the other hand, if there’s nothing then it’s still possible that you have a wireless device in the computer, especially if you purchased anytime after 2005. If you dont see an antenna, there is a way to check using Windows.

If you think you have a wireless device, but it has a yellow warning sign alongside its name in the Device Manager, you should take a look at it to see what may be wrong by double clicking on it. Windows should then tell you why the device is not working at the moment and may even suggest that you go through its troubleshooter program. Do that before you do anything else. If it turns out to be a driver problem, you should insert the driver CD that came with your computer. If you can’t find the driver CD that came with your computer – don’t worry because you should be able to find it on line and download the appropriate driver on line. The first step would be to go to website of your computers manufacturer and do a search for the name of the wireless device that showed up in your Device Manager. Once you find the correct driver simply download it and follow the instructions. After all this (actually about 5 minutes) you may discover that you don’t have a wireless enabled computer — oh well, those are the breaks. However, it’s clearly better to find out your computers wireless capacity now — before you go out and buy some wireless equipment and then realize that you didn’t even need it.

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