Build a Wi-Fi Home Network

With your individual computers equipped, you can now focus on the wireless gateway. Most of the time, you have a dial-up or broadband connection to the Internet that you want to share with several computers or use with one roaming computer. A gateway can also offer firewall protection by hiding your shared computers from the rest of the Internet.

Beware of plain Wi-Fi access points when making your decision. An access point can't share a connection and is intended just to extend a network that already has firewall and sharing features in a gateway.

If you already have wired Ethernet machines that you want to include on your network, consider a wireless gateway or router that has a built-in Ethernet switch with three or four jacks.

As we mentioned earlier, we recommend going with 802.11g equipment unless you are on a really tight budget. The difference in cost for 802.11b and 802.11g access points and gateways is only $15 to $30.

If you have broadband DSL or cable and at least one wired computer, you should opt for a full-featured wireless gateway with an Ethernet switch and firewall functions:

For those of you who rely on a dial-up connection to access the Internet, you're not out of luck. You can share your slow modem connection via Wi-Fi while still getting the high-speed advantage on your local network. Unfortunately, because broadband has become the rule of the day, your choices are limited. One of the few products that does the trick is Apple's AirPort Extreme Base Station with modem, which works fine with Windows PCs as well as Macs -- there's even a Windows setup utility now. This base station is also available in a less-expensive, modem-free version.