By Mitt Jones
(October 1, 2004)

A broadband connection brings the Internet into your home at blazing speeds. And with a wireless, or Wi-Fi, network, you can get that access on multiple computers throughout your home--and even outside it--without cords. What's more, today's wireless-networking products make broadband Internet sharing easy, inexpensive, and secure. In this Weekend Project, we'll show you how to distribute broadband Internet access among multiple notebook or desktop systems, and we'll walk you through the necessary steps to keep your network protected.

The core of a Wi-Fi network is a wireless router or gateway. We used the D-Link DI-624 AirPlus Xtreme G 802.11g router, which sells for $99 before a $20 rebate. You'll also need a wireless adapter for each system that connects to the network. We installed two D-Link AirPlus Xtreme G 802.11g wireless adapters: a DWL-G650 PC Card adapter for a Windows 2000 notebook PC ($65 before a $10 rebate) and a DWL-G520 PCI adapter for a secondary desktop running Windows XP Home Edition ($69 before a $10 rebate). The primary PC, connected to the router via an Ethernet cable, was running Windows XP Professional.