Built-in wireless capabilities in computers are becoming standard equipment. Most laptops and other home computers ship wireless ready. And, like things in the world, the reason is cost. Adding wireless capacity is relatively inexpensive. Manufacturers feel it is necessary to include wireless capabilities in their feature list. The consumer sees the value of added wireless as a great feature so the manufacturers get a great bang for the buck. Wireless is the future so any type of wireless feature is going to be a big hit with consumers.

Some consumers today are not that computer savvy. And, why should they be? Computers today 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 challenging task. However, they should be able to check what operating system they have, how much memory is in their system, what programs are installed and if there wireless computer is enabled for a wireless network. First, users should check the feature list the computer came with. It will say if your computer is wireless enabled.

Laptops with Intel Centrino Mobile Technology —–Most laptops today are equipped with Centrino technology. A lot of computer manufacturers do not explain what Centrino means. If your laptop came with this technology built-in its good thing. Centrino means that your laptop has wireless networking ready to go and you don’t have to do anything to enable your computer. Intel Centrino is just a name for the Intel Pentium M processor and Intel’s’ Pro Wireless card together. A Centrino sticker will be displayed on your laptop if it came with it. If you dont see a Centrino sticker check your Device Manager to see if you have a wireless adapter inside.

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.

NetJohn.com is an Informative Computer Website for current resources, articles and sources of affordable high quality computer parts. If you are looking to improve your computer, purchase a new computer, restore computer parts or find applicable computer information please visit this site.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.