Inspiron laptop with odd wifi

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sheryl56

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Apr 30, 2012
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10,510
my 78 yr old dad bought a Inspiron laptop on line from Dell in the last two weeks but it has some obsure wifi contraption on it even a tech who works on computers for a living was stumped by. I do not have specific model # but he is very frustrated and has now bought an external antenna to get wifi on it. This seems outragous no one has seen or heard of a laptop coming with out wifi in this day and age. Can anyone tell me what he got? I am 50 miles away can not go there except on weekends. :??:
 
Solution
It is outrageous and you have been misinformed by whatever tech looked at the system. It wasn't a very good technician if he couldnt figure what he was looking at. Dell normally uses very standard Wifi components. So much so that they are often easy to install OS's such as Linux that don't have open source driver support.

Did he buy this new from Dell? If so (or, even if not), look up the "service tag" on Dell's support site and it will tell you exactly what is in the computer. This is a very easy thing to do via:

http://www.dell.com/support/troubleshooting/us/en/19/Index?c=us&s=dhs&cs=19&l=en&t=system

Or, post the service tag on here and someone can look it up for you.

po1nted

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Apr 4, 2012
482
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It is outrageous and you have been misinformed by whatever tech looked at the system. It wasn't a very good technician if he couldnt figure what he was looking at. Dell normally uses very standard Wifi components. So much so that they are often easy to install OS's such as Linux that don't have open source driver support.

Did he buy this new from Dell? If so (or, even if not), look up the "service tag" on Dell's support site and it will tell you exactly what is in the computer. This is a very easy thing to do via:

http://www.dell.com/support/troubleshooting/us/en/19/Index?c=us&s=dhs&cs=19&l=en&t=system

Or, post the service tag on here and someone can look it up for you.
 
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sheryl56

Honorable
Apr 30, 2012
3
0
10,510
yes got it solved, dad took it to his friendly Staples store and the guy there said yes its right here and it auto connected to the store wifi immediatly . Our home tech was a little red faced but miscommunitcation between him and dad and unfarmilar router threw everyone off. Alls well . Thanks for the time and I will keep you on favorites to get more answers in the future.
 
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