wi fi for Optiplex 7040?

[OldSchool38]

One of my family members has recently gotten their hands on a dell optiplex 7040 regular tower with an I7 processor.  They were looking for a wifi card or usb device they could use on the dell to pick up wifi from their router.  I've looked on amazon, but there are tons of choices-does anyone here have any specific recommendations based on their experiences?  Would prefer something inexpensive if possible.

[Tripredacus]

You match the capabilities of the wifi card/device to the existing router. You say they have a router now, but do not say what model.

From experience: since a desktop is largely immoble, you want to make sure that the desktop's current location is good for using wireless. You can easily test this by seeing what kind of signal strength you get at the location at the back of the computer (or wherever the antenna would be) with a cell phone. See if that location can even get a good signal. If the location isn't good, then you may need to get a different router, a repeater and/or determine what is causing the issue in the environment.

For any wireless add-on you'll want something with an antenna, and also probably one using a standard connection. Some of the USB ones have a built-in antenna. If you have one with the standard connector (such as with a PCI card) then you can use an extension if having the antenna directly on the card isn't good placement.

[jaclaz]

Loosely., get a USB Wi-Fi dongle with external (cabled) antenna, this way you have more possibilities to put it in a "good spot".by using an antenna extension cable OR (IMHO better) use a "larger" one via a USB extension.

Example (not a recommendation or endorsement) of the kind of device:

https://www.tp-link.com/us/home-networking/usb-adapter/tl-wn822n/

jaclaz

[OldSchool38]

I believe the router is an arris-c202, it says on the sec mode: wpa2-psk, does that help?

[Tripredacus]

C202 doesn't seem right. But this probably isn't a router per-se, it is more likely a cable modem. Do you know if they own it or it is leased from the cable company?

[OldSchool38]

It's a modem leased from the cable company.

[NotHereToPlayGames]

Since you are leasing, I would contact the cable company.

You are paying for the equipment and that should be buying you tech support as well.

[Tripredacus]

14 hours ago, ArcticFoxie said:

Since you are leasing, I would contact the cable company.

You are paying for the equipment and that should be buying you tech support as well.

No this is the incorrect answer. You may be able to call the cable company to get the specs, if you can't find the actual model number of the cable modem in order to look it up yourself. There is nothing wrong with the modem (as far as this thread goes) so there is no "support" for the cable company to provide.