[Stephanie17s21]

Hi everyone. I just bought a gateway laptop, and I have a few questions about wireless internet. How exactly do I go about getting internet on my laptop? I currently have a dell desktop that runs on cable hi speed internet. I have heard about linksys routers...is this something that people recommend? If so, which specific model? Also, if I purchase a wireless router, is there a monthly fee for having internet connection? I know that some cell phone companies carry a car type thing for internet...are they worth the money? Thanks in advance!

[Carbon]

Some other people know more about routers than I do, haha, so I'll leave that to them.

All you'll need to do is plug the modem into the router, no fee or anything, and you'll have a wireless internet connection.

The cell phone ones aren't really worth it unless you really need to get on from anywhere and they're very expensive and relatively slow.

[MJM]

I don't expect you to do any sort of firmware hacking or alike. I also don't think you'll need wireless N, so I'd recommend a Linksys WRT54GS.

Basically what you do is this.
Unplug your computer's cable from the modem.
Use a second ethernet cable and plug the modem into the router.
Plug the computer's ethernet cable into one of the lan ports of the router.
Turn everything on. Use the supplied CD to set up the network via your computer. Be sure to use a good encryption (WAP2 for instance) with a nice long, random password.
Log onto the wireless with your laptop.

Joy.