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I want to set up wireless internet at home so my wife can get on using her laptop. I think I remember it coming with a wireless card but how do I tell for sure?

 
Rep Power: 951

My brothers laptop came with a built in wireless card so he feeds off are main router in the office. My computer is on a Wireless USB (sucks *** to) So we have the main cable modem and a main router in there and both mine and his laptop feed of it. So im guessing if she does have a built in one u may need to get a main router but im not 100% sure.

 
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I will need a router but I just want to know how to make sure she has a wireless card first.

 
Rep Power: 1093

right click on my computer, go to the hardware tab, go to device manager. look at your network adapter, it should say.

 
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It says Realtek RTL8139/810x Family Fast Ethernet NIC, is this one?

 
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Nope, thats just an ethernet card. look for something taht says 802.11a/b that will be your wireless.

 
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Where do I find that?

 
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Since im guessing you arent very tech savvy, it would probably be easier to find the model number of the laptop and hten look it up online. But if it has one it should be in the device manager like stated above.

 
Rep Power: 824

like justin had mentioned "right click on my computer, go to the hardware tab, go to device manager. look at your network adapter, it should say". In here you should see two devices. One being a ethernet network adapter and a second being a wireless adapter.

 
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go to ur local starbucks with it and see if u have a signal

 
Rep Power: 959

Wireless net owns all, I can go any where in the house or yard and use the laptop.

 
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probably one of the easiest things to do. OR, if you go to Control Panel - Network Connections it'll show one of two things.. either Wireless Network Connections or it'll say Local Area Connection. Unless you live in a spaced out neighborhood, chances are if you have a wireless adapter you'd already know it because every time you turn on the comp, you'll pick up someone else's wireless network in the area. For example, today I went to a club meeting at the club president's house, I took my laptop with my wireless adapter and when I turned the comp on and let it run for a few minutes, next thing i know I get a little bubble popup at the bottom task bar that says "Connected to Wireless Network" mind you... the guy doesn't even have internet access at his house, i was connecting to the neighbor's wireless router lol But, that also entirely has to do with how ignorant they are when it comes to having a wireless network. I don't feel any remorse for stealing someone else's wireless bandwidth if they don't know the three basic steps of setting up a wireless router to make it so that it's secure enough that random people can't connect. It only takes three things to secure a wireless network (all from the router's webpage configuration interface) (1) change the SSID (2) turn off SSID broadcasting (3) enable WEP encryption with a pass phrase. If you want to go a step further to secure it, filter MAC addresses so that only the laptop's MAC address will be given access through the wireless router.

 
Rep Power: 1093

holy long post!

anyways, yeah, I find it funny when I pick up wireless connections. I can sit at one place at work in the lobby and pick up 2 wireless signals across the street... sure beats starbucks hahaha.

At home is a different story. We almost didnt need to get the internet here... I swear nobody locks their connections. We have a router with wireless in it besides ethernet, and I make sure we filter the MAC adresses.

 
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Actually I was just at my parent's house and my brother who's one of the highest software security engineer's at Motarola's(sp) IL plants. So I talked to him and showed him the laptop and we got everything figtured out.

 
Rep Power: 824

yeah its so damn easy to put basic security on a network. people are just too lazy