Wireless card on new desktops??

I have a neighbor who recently bought a HP desktop computer and she asked me to set it up to connect to the internet wirelessly. Her router is all set up and is working fine---I connected to it with my laptop. She was able to connect to the internet with it 'wired' to the router but she wants to move it downstairs. I attempted to get it to work but it appears that it doesn't have a wireless network card. The documentation says nothing about 'wireless' capability and I went into 'Hardware Drivers' and under 'Network' I saw a '1394 adapter' and a 'Nvidia nForce Networking Controller.....' something or other. I also looked on the back of the tower and I saw the ethernet input but nothing that resembled and wireless connection - i.e. an antenna, or a connection for one.

Just wondering, do desktop, in general, come 'wireless ready'? Also, how can I tell for sure whether she has a wireless card in this system?

thanks

adamo

Not generally. Unless she asked them to put in a pci wireless card or the board
comes with built in wireless capabilities. Have her register the system and check
the system specs to see if its capable. You probably will need to buy a pci wireless
card to accomplish what she wants.

Check the Device Manger under Network adapters.

If there is a Wireless adapter it would show up there.

Othewise, I need a Wireless Card what should I get? http://www.ezlan.net/faq#wcard

.

Well that clears it up for me, she definitely doesn't have a wireless adapter.

That link above confused me a little bit........can I use any one of those 3 types of adapters? If it matters, it's an HP desktop running XP and her router is by NetGear and she has DSL.

I went to Newegg to see some of the adapters that they offer and I expected to see internal cards that screw into the back of the system. But they were all made for 'card-readers'. I don't have much experience with them, but I see that my laptop has a reader and my friend's desktop has a section on the front of the tower with all types of card readers. So does that mean that of the three types of readers that are available, I should be all set with either one? Are there any other specs to look for? Her router is 54Mbps and is 802.11g.

You'll want to look here: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...dapter&Ntk=all

Get either a PCI or USB adapter. Both will work.

if you have the avialable PCI slot, go PCI.

USB has its own little quirks if you are wiling to live with them.......PCI is mucho better...........

baldy

I will definitely go PCI but, if I wanted to, could I go PCMCIA or USB?

You could easily use USB, but you couldn't use PCMCIA unless the computer has a PCMCIA slot. Laptops generally have PCMCIA slots, but desktops almost never have 'em. (It would be kinda silly, but if you really wanted, you could install a PCI-PCMCIA card like this one and then plug a PCMCIA card into it.)