Build a Wi-Fi Home Network

It all boils down to the drill bit: How many holes do you have to put in your walls to network your home? The answer is zero if you choose Wi-Fi.

Wi-Fi avoids not just the hassle and horror of pulling cables and adding holes, but it also unshackles your desktop and laptop computers. You can move machines around a room or around a house. You can surf in the back yard, on the roof, or maybe even at a neighbor's home.

Better yet, newer technology makes it simple to have a Wi-Fi network that covers not just a small area, but even a large house -- inside and out -- with a little extra equipment.

We'll cover the basics in this guide so that you can get up and running with Wi-Fi with a minimum of expense and configuration the first time out. We'll also tell you how to easily extend Wi-Fi coverage across a larger home, into the back yard, or to nearby apartments or buildings.

A Wi-Fi network requires, at a minimum, at least one computer or handheld PDA equipped with a Wi-Fi adapter, and a wireless access point or gateway, which manages communication between the wireless devices and your Internet connection.

A wireless gateway plugs into your broadband or modem connection, and allows each computer equipped with a Wi-Fi adapter to access both the Internet and other Wi-Fi-equipped computers and devices on the local network.

In the pages that follow, we'll show you how to install Wi-Fi in your computers, how to set up your own Wi-Fi network, and how to extend that network to cover the entirety of your home -- and even the back yard, if you so desire. You'll be surfing in no time.

Web surfing, that is.