What's the difference between wifi and non wifi motherboard?

Harry Macnaughton · 12 Jul 2020 at 23:20

What does a motherboard with wifi do?
How does a pc connect to the internet does it need something that allows it to connect to the internet?

DoneADougalOnSofa · 12 Jul 2020 at 23:24

With a non-WiFi board, you would need either an ethernet cable from PC to router, or a separate WiFi card or dongle.

A WiFi board simply has this already built-in, so you can connect wirelessly without any additional hardware.

MrRockliffe · 12 Jul 2020 at 23:25

A motherboard with WiFi won't need any additional hardware to connect to a WiFi network. Motherboards without built in WiFi will usually have a LAN port, to which you can connect an ethernet cable. In my limited experience, realtek ones won't work without additional drivers, so on a fresh install, it doesn't work. Intel NICs are supported without the need for additional drivers and will work even on a fresh install of windows. Again, this is just my experience and may not be the case anymore.

Justintime · 18 Jul 2020 at 03:06

Do note that if standards change and a better wifi standard is implemented you're stuck with the hardware of the older likely slower standard the board has unless you use a pcie or usb device with the newer standard.

Tetras · 18 Jul 2020 at 20:50

Harry Macnaughton said:
What does a motherboard with wifi do?
How does a pc connect to the internet does it need something that allows it to connect to the internet?

Your PC doesn't connect to the Internet, the router it is connected to does that job.

The motherboard WiFi just connects you to the wireless signal that the router provides.

The wireless signal only provides Internet connectivity if the router is connected to the phone line (assuming it is broadband), otherwise it will just be a private network.

You can buy an external wireless card that plugs into a USB port on your computer, so you don't need it on your motherboard.