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wireless for desktops? - Casey B i know you need some wireless card for lap tops and stuff, but what do you need for desktops to have wireless? i just got a wireless router

Best Answer: Hi Casey. The other answers are good, and point out that you would need a wireless card of appropriate form factor (PCI, ISA, whatever). But you also would need to run special software (device drivers, etc.) to make the leap from your Desktop computer system to your wireless router. I don't know if you know this or not, but every network card has an address, called a MAC address, which is a series of six-pairs of two-digit hexidecimal numbers, separated by colons, which is the ID of the Desktop computer on the network. This is true of both wireless and wired ethernet cards. One machine may have a separate address for each card in the computer. So if you're at a command prompt and type "getmac" a list of each MAC address is listed within the Command prompt window. And you may already have discovered that your new router is constantly broadcasting it's name or SSID (Service Set Identifier), which you need to know to connect to it via your Desktop computer wireless card. And, if there's any security at all, you'll need the MAC address and the SSID to form a barrer against intruders who would use your wireless network to gain access for themselves (a Federal offense). I know you wouldn't want that. The MAC address can be used to form a list of all the computers who are allowed on the network; this is called MAC address filtering. This implies that those not on the list are not allowed access. Most routers probably have some form of security that goes beyond the usual User Name and Password combination. Desktop wireless cards are available for both PC and Mac. Linksys offers several models for the PC and Sonnet supplies cards for Mac Desktops. Good luck on your voyage of discovery and learning and congratulations on that new wireless router purchase you made. - Bert H

yes you will need a wireless pci card or a usb wireless card. i do not know of any onboard wireless motherboard for a desktop there is a link to my web page in my profile - bitsandbytescomputers.sytes.net

Yes you need a wireless PCI card for a desktop - frank21142226

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