Wireless for desktop -tech-tard extraordinaire

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baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
Ok, openly mock me for my complete lack of technical nous in any form (in the words of Christian Slater in 'Heathers' - free with the Observer today, bargain fans! - "That's the stupidest question I've ever heard), but...:

I'm buying a new desktop, and Dell is helpfully screwing with my head by offering me a million options. We have a router that works fine with my laptop, so do I need to purchase a wireless card for the desktop in order to connect to the router, or is that capability automatically built-in? I'm new to wireless, having used cables for most of my adult life....

Mock away! :eek:
 
P

polystyle

Well-known member
My guess would be that your desktop already has the capability built in.
You will have to set it up though, going through doing the internal setting needed for everything to go back and forth.
That was tedious (for us ) even on Mac's.
 
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Ness Rowlah

Norwegian Wood
My guess is that desktop comes with a wired network connection, but no wireless one?


If the router is close to the desktop then it should only be a matter of connecting an
Ethernet cable to the router (most routers have 3-4 Ethernet connection at the back)
and normally it all just works.
21a4wDVF-iL._SL500_AA180_.jpg


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If the desktop is too far away from the router:

To avoid opening up the desktop, get yourself an external wireless USB-dongle.
"802.11n" is the latest and greatest and will work older kit ("802.11g" - don't ask).
Something like this is likely to get the job done:

310LU-Dvh5L._SL500_AA280_.jpg


 
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baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
I could fix the laptop to the router if I had some kind of extension cable....hmm.

As for the external wireless USb gizmo, I have one but someone else set it up, so I have no idea how to transfer it over to a new computer etc etc. Christ i hate technical shit.

Thanks for your answers guys, by the way.
 
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petergunn

plywood violin
i bought a dell and i did pay the extra 30 bucks or whatever it was (couldn't have been too much, i'm cheap...) for the wireless card and i don't regret it...

essentially if you are plugging into a modem, you don't need it... but, if you want to take advantage of wireless you do...

it's come in handy when for some reason my network has gone out (verizon!) i've been able to hop onto my neighbors weak signal, which would be strong enough to check email (might take a couple minutes to load, but at least i don't have to leave the house...)
 
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