Elysian Shadows

How do you hook up a wireless modem or router? I have my internet service through my cable company. I rent my home and do not have hookups in the room I want my cable in. Can I move the computer too the room I want it on if I get a wireless modem or router? I am not sure which one I need. Could I do it myself without calling cable company? Can someone tell me what is a good brand with clear instructions?

You can indeed hook it up wirelessly with a wireless router, but, you need to have a wireless adapter/network card for your computer. Pretty much all laptops have a wireless network card built in, but most desktops don't. You also don't need the cable company, but check with them to see if there's any sort of free/cheap combined router/modem - some companies will supply those (at least here) which means you don't need two separate pieces of hardware. You would still need the wireless adapter/network card though if your computer doesn't have one. You can probably tell whether or not you have one by going to "control panel" -> "network connections" and seeing if there's any sort of "wireless network connection" icon there (not "local area" or "1394").

Brand wise I'd stick with Linksys. They're a bit more expensive, but in my experience they're definitely the most reliable. I've had a few Dlink's before, and they've all crapped out on me. I've also seen cheap no-name ones like Belkin be a pain in the ass for friends of mine (poor quality, unstable connections usually). This is one area where a good name is definitely worth it. Perhaps forum members will have other suggestions too.

To be clear, you need a router, and you probably need a wireless adapter or network card (are you comfortable installing hardware - this one is comparatively easy, but an adapter would be even easier). You don't need a modem (unless your cable provider is up for giving you a combined modem/router for free/cheap). Your current modem receives the cable signal. Next, either a computer or router receives the signal from the modem along with an IP address (which is how "the internet" sees you, kind of like an identity number). In your case you'll be using a router. That router acts as a firewall to block against certain threats (another reason to have one), and it also distributes the signal to all computers that hook up to your network. A wireless router will just let you do this wirelessly. Essentially, it'll give them each their own "internal" IP address, which is just a way of saying it's an address that only the computers on the network and the router are able to see. That's good to know if you ever plan on doing much online gaming on a service that makes you manually enter IP addresses, but I'm not going to go there right now.

As far as setting it up, I'll wait until you get a particular kind to respond. You'll probably want to change the default password on your router (for accessing wirelessly) but different routers have slightly different ways to most easily do that (some have really easy and straight-forward set up software so you likely won't need our help).