can anyone tell me if the new kindle fire works with dsl or do you have to be wireless?

Hi, Diane, if you have a wireless router (with antennas) attached to your DSL router (or if your DSL router is wireless with antennas) then you can have Wi-Fi - otherwise you need to get a wireless router and set it up. Also, I would not recommend Kindle Fire one single bit, it's a total lemon of a device according to many users and pro reviews. Kindle Fire is neither a tablet (too underpowered and lacks features) nor eReader (LCD screen and poor battery life.) It is rather a $200 device for shopping on Amazon web site. If you believe more than 900 people that left 1-2 star reviews on Amazon site for Kindle Fire and drop all 5-start reviews from Amazon employees and read middle ground 3-start reviews you'll understand that it is a deeply flawed device. It is confirmed at this time that many Kindle Fire units have faulty Wi-Fi and people have a lot of issues connecting to internet according to many user reviews. Other issues are that it runs hot to touch, video playback is jerky, touch screen is not responsive and it takes 2-3 touches to register, power button placement is very poor and is prone to accidental power off, all the hype of Silk browser is a fake where the browsing is actually slower than on other Android tablets, etc.

Take a look at recently released Nook Tablet - it's been getting rave reviews and it is the best device in it's class - much better than Kindle Fire. It's got Netflix, Hulu, Pandora, Angry Brids, etc., the best battery life, the best screen, double the RAM and space for apps/photos/movies, microSD slot, a microphone for Skype, and physical volume controls on the side (neither of those is on Kindle Fire), very smooth video playback with excellent screen, and very fast apps load. You can buy Nook’s at Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Millon, Walmart, BestBuy, Staples, OfficeMax, Fred Mayer, P.C. Richard, Radio Shack, Target, Fry's, Kmart, Sears etc. stores and web sites.

Here's a sample of pro reviews:

Laptop Mag

Whether it’s the bigger amount of RAM or just more mature software, the Nook Tablet feels a lot faster than the Fire. Where the Fire often seems sluggish and, on our tests, often failed to respond to our taps until we hit an icon two or three times, the Nook Tablet was always smooth and responsive.

How to tell if you have Wi-fi?

In order to access the internet with your computers at home, is there a wire connecting them to a modem, which then has a wire going into a wall (besides power of course)?

If that's the only computer and it matches the description I mentioned, it's likely you do not have Wi-fi wireless capability.

If you have folks in the house roaming around using laptops, then wireless is available.

Bottom line, you need Wi-fi wireless available in order to download things on to the Kindle Fire. You can't stick a cable into the Kindle from a DSL modem.

It doesn't matter what your internet service is. As long as you have WiFi in your house, you can have DSL, Cable, FIOS, Dial-up, whatever you want.