Is Your Computer Wireless Ready?

Today, built in wireless capabilities are becoming standard equipment. Most laptop and home ship wireless ready. And, with most things in the world, the reason is cost. Adding wireless capacity is inexpensive. 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 get a great bang for the buck. Wireless is the future so anything wireless 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 there wireless computer is enabled for wireless. First, check the feature list the computer came with. It will state flat out if your computer is wireless enabled.  

Laptops - Intel Centrino Mobile Technology
A lot of computer manufacturers do not explain well what Centrino means but if you if your laptop came with this built in it’s good thing.  Centrino means that your laptop has wireless networking built in and 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.

Centino computers come with a Centrino sticker prominently displayed somewhere. If you can't find a sticker you can check using your computer. Right click on your "My Computer" icon. It's probably on your desktop but if not then go to your Start Menu, find My Computer, right-click and select Properties. A screen will display showing information about your system. You should be able to find Centrino here.

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 don’t see an antenna, there is a way to check using Windows.

Using Windows to Check Wireless Capacity
Rather than messing with your computers hardware to verify what you've got installed, you can just as easily check using your Windows' Device Manager. You can access the Device Manager via the Control Panel.

After you bring up the Device Manager a list of installed in your computer will appear. Look under Network adapters and ignore anything that says 10/100 or Ethernet because they are simply normal network connections -- not wireless ones. If there's anything else there, it could be a wireless device.

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'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't find the driver CD that came with your computer - don't worry because you should be able to find it online and download the appropriate driver online. 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.