Is Your Laptop Wireless Enabled?

Inbuilt wireless functionalities are becoming almost standard equipment on most laptops and home desktops these days for quite a couple of reasons. One of these primary reasons is price. Adding wireless capability is so cheap that it would be silly for the companies not to add it. The perceived value of any piece of equipment with wireless capability far exceeds the price to add it. Wireless is a wave of the future, so if the companies are planning to stay ahead of the technology opposition they need to add it to all but there most basic models.

However, if youre like the majority you probably dont even check the amount of memory your computer has, let-alone whether or not your computer is wireless enabled. Throw in the fact that you just might not know what wireless networking is, and it's simple to disregard even trying to determine whether or not your laptop has that capacity. As a result, ever taking the time to set it up is obviously out of the question.

Since you bought your computer you have probably heard more and more about "going wireless" since it's become the hip thing to do. If that is the case with you or I've simply sparked your mind then read a little more because I've outlined a few changes you can do to check whether or not your computer has wireless features.

Laptops - Intel Centrino Mobile Technology

Computer companies do lower than a perfect job at explaining what this means, but if your laptop came with this built in then that is good news for you! In a nutshell, it implies that your laptop has wireless networking built right in and you do not need to do a thing. Intel Centrino Mobile Technology is really a marketing name for the combination of the Intel Pentium M processor and Intel's' Pro Wireless card.

For those who have Intel Centrino Mobile Technology it follows that your computer must contain a "Centrino" sticker on it someplace. If you cannot locate a sticker but you suspect you had one at one time then simply do the following.

Right click on the "My Computer" icon. It's probably on your desktop itself, but if it isn't then go to the 'Start Menu', find 'My Computer', right-click and select Properties. When your menu opens look at what it says after, or under the word 'Computer'.

On a side note, Intel Centrino Mobile Technology also improves your battery life and enables manufacturers to build computers smaller. If you can't find anything pertaining to Intel Centrino Mobile Technology under the word Computer -- do not worry because if your laptop has a free card slot, installing wireless will be a piece of cake.

Any computer with no wireless network card or USB adapter will require one installing. This isn't that difficult and they are moderately cheap to buy. The key thing is to make sure that they are compatible with the wireless ADSL modem router. For compatibility with the Netgear DG834G, the Netgear RangeMax USB Adapter WPN111 is recommended for desktops, and the Netgear RangeMax WN511B is recommended for laptops.