wireless connection to computer

[foxyferret]

This is going to sound like a very naff question to all the computer wizards out there but here goes. How can you tell if a computer is wireless or not? My daughter has been given a wireless router but cannot remember if her actual computer is wireless or not. Is there something on the tower you can look at to see? If it is not wireless, can you buy some accessorie to make it so, or is it just a case of if its not wireless thats it. Sorry but where computers are concerned I have very little knowledge, many thanks to anyone good enough to offer advice

[MarkRae]

In order for a computer to be wireless enabled, it needs to have a wireless network interface card. With desktop machines (which sounds like what you have because of your use of the word 'tower'), these are almost always separate cards added to a free PCI slot on the motherboard. With laptops, they are almost always built in. A while ago, they used to be mostly PCMCIA, but that's very rare these days...

Where did this computer come from? Generally speaking, desktop machines do not come with wireless NICS, because they don't need them. They sit on the desktop, so the are wired directly into the network by means of an ethernet cable.

Obviously, opening the machine up would reveal straightaway whether it had a wireless NIC installed. However, I'd never advise a novice to do that.

An easy way to tell would be to look in Device Manager and see what networking devices you see... How you do this, will depend on what version of Windows is running on the machine. Obviously, it's not running Windows, that's a different matter, but still not a problem...

[foxyferret]

it is running Windows XP

[foxyferret]

this has been very helpful MarkRae, next time I visit her I will check out the make of the computer and look in Devices. If it is possible to fit a card, have you any idea how much they cost? Many thanks for your help

[MarkRae]

As I mentioned, desktop PCs are typically connected to networks via Ethernet cables, so go for that if you possibly can. Obviously, this may not be possible because the machine is too far away from the router...

In that case, wireless network cards are fairly cheap:
http://www.broadbandb...ch.asp?CategoryID=387

Or, if you don't fancy opening up the machine and installing it yourself, you could always get a wireless USB adaptor:
http://www.broadbandb...ch.asp?CategoryID=461

As always, make sure your wireless network is as secure as you can possibly make it...

[Haggisdj]

A lot of wireless network cards have an arial, have a look to see if there is one attached to the back of you PC.

[foxyferret]

thanks to MarkRae for the info and sites. having looked at them, I am now more confident in what I need to get. Thanks also to haggisdj for your help