Built in wireless capabilities become almost standard equipment on most laptops and home computers these days for several reasons. One major reason is cost. Adding wireless capacity is very cheap for manufacturers that would be silly not to add it. The perceived value of any machine with wireless capacity far exceeds the cost to add it. Wireless is the wave of the future, so if manufacturers want to stay ahead of technology curve they need to add it to all but the most basic models.
However, if you’re like most people you probably can not even check how much memory your computer has, let alone if your computer is wireless enabled. Throw in the fact that you probably do not know what a wireless network and is easy to ignore even trying to determine whether your computer has that capacity. Consequently, after never taking the time to set it clear out of the question.
However, since you bought your computer, you may have heard more about “going wireless” because it became the hip thing to do. If it happens to you or I simply peaked your imagination then read a bit more because I have explained some things you can do to check if your computer has wireless capability.
Laptops – Intel Centrino Mobile Technology
Computer manufacturers do less than perfect job to explain what this means, but if you if your laptop comes with built in then it’s good news for you! In short, it means that your laptop has wireless networking built right in and you do not need to do anything. Intel Centrino mobile technology is the marketing name for the combination of Intel’s Pentium M processor and Intel Pro Wireless card ‘.
If you have an Intel Centrino Mobile Technology then your computer must have a “Centrino” sticker somewhere. If you can not find a sticker but you suspect you have one at a time then simply do the following. Right-click on the icon “My Computer”. Maybe on your desktop but if not then go into your Start Menu, find My Computer, right click and select Properties. When the menu opens to see what it says after or under the word Computer.
On a side note, Intel Centrino Mobile Technology also increases battery life and allows manufacturers to build smaller computers. If you can not find anything referring to Intel Centrino Mobile Technology under the word Computer – do not worry as long as your laptop has a free card slot, installing wireless is a piece of cake.
Desktop Computers
If you are not sure whether or not your desktop computer has a wireless connection, the easiest thing to do is to just turn around and look for a small air sticking out from the back to the bottom. If it exists then you are wireless enabled. On the other hand, if no then it is still possible that you have a wireless device to the computer, especially if you purchased anytime in 2005 or so. However, because it’s not the best idea (unless you’ve never done it) to try and open your computer to check something I’ll show you how to check whether your wireless is enabled, use Windows.
Using Windows to Check Wireless Capacity
Rather than tinkering with the hardware of your computer to verify what you have installed, you can easily check using your Windows Device Manager ‘. To use it, right-click My Computer / Choose Manage / and then click Device Manager.
After you click the Device Manager list of everything that you can install will appear at the right of the screen. Just look under Network adapters and ignore anything that says 10/100 or Ethernet because they are simply normal network connections – not the wireless. If there is something else there, it can be a wireless device.
If you think you have a wireless device, but it has a yellow warning sign with his name in the Device Manager, you should look to see what’s 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 not find the driver CD that came with your computer – do not worry because you should be able to find and then download the appropriate driver online. The first step will go to the website of the manufacturer of your computer and do a search for a wireless device name that appears in the Device Manager. Once you find the correct driver simply download and follow the instructions.
After all of this (actually about 5 minutes) you may find that you do not have a computer with wireless – oh well, they are resting. However, it’s definitely better to know the capabilities of your wireless computers now – before you go out and buy some wireless equipment and then realize that you do not even need it.
