If the wireless is turned on and you have a password to the router, your kindle would connect thru the wireless router directly via “wifi”. You can’t connect directly via a wire to to the computer. Now what you can do is get a ether net to wireless adaptor which would connect to one of the other router ports and creat an instant wifi hotspot. Your Kindle connects to the wireless adaptor which connects to the router via wire so you can get away from having to know the main router’s wireless access codes.
OK, thanks, that explains it well.
Not true for this DX I have here. The charging cable is a USB cable, and the Kindle becomes just another mass storage device (acts like a thumb-drive) when I plug it in. My model does not have WiFi, and sometimes I've stayed at hotels in areas without 3G. I downloaded files from the Amazon website directly into the Kindle via USB cable.