Workstations manufactured in the 1990s and early 2000s, before Wi-Fi became prevalent, often lack wireless networking cards or adapters that enable a computer to detect and interpret Wi-Fi signals.

USB wireless adapters for laptops offer a means of connecting your laptop to the internet when the laptop itself does not have an internal Wi-Fi connection or the existing internal hardware is broken.

There’s one main reason why you’d want to grant your desktop PC access to the wireless world, and it’s a biggie: You’re sick of stringing ugly Ethernet cables around your house. But you also might not ...