Which Router

bookie31,

"Is this an issue at all." -- No.  A broadband internet connection such as DSL or cable runs no faster than 5-6Mbps.  Even wireless 802.11b runs at 11Mbps, so the maximum speed of the connection rests with the internet connection, not wi-fi.  Get a router and wireless adapter from the same manufacturer.  Today's current 802.11g standard (54Mbps) will serve you well, unless you anticipate heavy file transferring between the PCs in your LAN.  In that case, speed boost technology would be helpful, but it won't make the internet access any faster.

First, to address the speed issue, the slowest wireless routers/wireless network cards (802.11b) operate at 11 Mbps, which is still faster than the maximum speed of typical cable and dsl broadband internet connections of about 6 Mbps.  So, unless there is a lot of interference or metal walls in your house, speed should not be an issue. 

The cable/dsl routers sold today come in a variety of speeds.  The most common are 802.11/b/g which offers the g band at 54 Mbps.  There are also High Speed or Super G routers that offer speeds up to 108 Mbps, but as you can see from the discussion above, these higher speeds will have no effect on a broadband internet connection.   Furthermore, these higher speed routers have proprietary methods of acheiving the higher speed and thus require that the wireless network adapters and the router be from the same manufacturer.  You can save consiserable money by sticking with the 802.11b/g models.

Most wireless routers from Linksys, Belkin, D-Link, and Netgear have 4 ethernet ports and thus can connect up to 4 computers with a wired ethernet connection and many more by wireless.   Thus, if you have a computer already located within the vicinity of the broadband modem, you should connect it to the router by a wired ethernet connection instead of wireless and thus you will only need a wireless network adapter for the computer that is going to connect by wireless. 

Of course for all of this to work, you broadband modem must be able to make an ethernet connection with the router.  If your modem can only connect by USB, I would recommend replacing the modem with one that can connect by ethernet.  There are ways to get a USB modem to work, but it becomes much more complicated.

Steve

Thanks for the replies. I was all set to pay big bucks for stuff that I didn't need.  Again, Thanks!!

  Rick