Built in wireless capabilities are becoming almost standardequipment on most laptop and home computers these days for acouple of reasons. One of the primary reasons is cost. Addingwireless capacity is so inexpensive that it would be silly forthe manufacturers not to add it. The perceived value of anymachine with wireless capacity far exceeds the cost to add it.Wireless is the wave of the future, so if the manufacturers wantto stay ahead of the technology curve they need to add it to allbut there most basic models.

However, if you're like most people you probably can't evencheck how much memory your has, let-alone if yourcomputer is wireless enabled. Throw in the fact that you may noteven know what wireless networking is and it's easy to ignoreeven trying to determine if your has that capacity. Asa result, having ever taken the time to set it up is clearly outof the question.

However, since you bought your you've probably heardmore and more about "going wireless" because it's becoming thehip thing to do. If that's the case with you or I've simplypeaked your imagination then read a bit more because I'veoutlined a few things you can to do to check if your computerhas wireless capabilities.

Laptops - Intel Centrino Mobile Technology Computermanufacturers do less than a perfect job at explaining what thismeans but if you if your laptop came with this built in thenthat's good news for you! In a nutshell, it means that yourlaptop has wireless networking built right in and you don't haveto do a thing. Intel Centrino Mobile Technology is a marketingname for a combination of the Intel Pentium M processor andIntel's' Pro Wireless card.

If you have Intel Centrino Mobile Technology then your computershould have a "Centrino" sticker on it somewhere. If you can'tfind a sticker but you suspect you had one at one time thensimply do the following. Right click on your "My Computer" icon.It's probably on your desktop but if not then go to your StartMenu, find My Computer, right-click and select Properties. Whenthe menu opens look at what it says after or under the wordComputer.

On a side note, Intel Centrino Mobile Technology also increasesbattery life and allows manufacturers to build computerssmaller. If you can't find anything referring to Intel CentrinoMobile Technology under the word -- don't worry becauseas long as your laptop has a free card slot, installing wirelessis a piece of cake.

Desktop Computers If you're not sure whether or not your desktopcomputer has



a wireless connection, the easiest thing to do isto simply turn it around and look for a small aerial stickingout of the back towards the bottom. If it's there then you arewireless enabled. On the other hand, if there's nothing thenit's still possible that you have a wireless device in thecomputer, especially if you purchased anytime in 2005 or beyond.However, because it's not the best idea (unless you've done itbefore) to try and open up your to check something I'llshow you a way to check, if your wireless enabled, using Windows.

Using Windows to Check Wireless Capacity Rather than messingwith your computers hardware to verify what you've gotinstalled, you can just as easily check using your Windows'Device Manager. To use it, right click My / ChooseManage / and then click Device Manager.

After you click Device Manager a list of everything you caninstall will appear on the right half of the screen. Take a lookunder Network adapters and ignore anything that says 10/100 orEthernet because they are simply normal network connections --not wireless ones. If there's anything else there, it could be awireless device.

If you think you have a wireless device, but it has a yellowwarning sign alongside its name in the Device Manager, youshould take a look at it to see what's wrong by double clickingon it. Windows should then tell you why the device is notworking at the moment and may even suggest that you go throughits troubleshooter program. Do that before you do anything else.

If it turns out to be a driver problem, you should insert thedriver CD that came with your computer. If you can't find thedriver CD that came with your - don't worry because youshould be able to find and then download the appropriate driveronline. The first step would be to go to website of yourcomputers manufacturer and do a search for the name of thewireless device that showed up in your Device Manager. Once youfind the correct driver simply download it and follow theinstructions.

After all this (actually about 5 minutes) you may discover thatyou don't have a wireless enabled -- oh well, those arethe breaks. However, it's clearly better to find out yourcomputers wireless capacity now -- before you go out and buysome wireless equipment and then realize that you didn't evenneed it.

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About the author:Kevin Erickson is an entrepreneur and writer. To read otherarticles he's written visit: Wireless Internet | VoIP Provider | Trade Show Display

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