"The only stupid question is the one you don't ask." Which is why I'm asking this relatively, well, stupid question. I'm just a little confused with all this wireless networking stuff. Generally I consider myself fairly technologically savvy, but I am completely new and inexperienced in the field of networking. Consequently, I don't really know what I'm doing. Right now, I have a Netgear 802.11b Wireless PC Card (PCMCIA Model MA401) for my laptop. Basically, I'm trying to figure out how to connect to my college's T-3 or whatever by using my wireless card instead of a Cat-5. As it stands now, I can simply plug in my Cat-5 from my laptop to the socket in the wall and everything works great - the wall socket connects me to the college network and the internet. However, I don't like keeping my laptop on the desk, and often work on my bed, on the couch, or outside on the sundeck. So I want to connect wirelessly. Also, my roommate and two suitemates also want to connect through the same jack. Rather than each connecting through our own jack and paying $70 each for the connection, we want to just connect through the one and split the $70 four ways. We'll likely have three of us connecting wirelessly and one wired. What exactly do I need? Do I need a router and an access point? Just a router? Just an access point? A hub? I'm a little confused. As a sidenote, can we all simultaneously play games on the college network through the single jack? I know we can all access the internet simultaneously, but a couple of us are big Counter-strike fans. Will we be able to simultaneously play on the college network through that same connection? Thanks a bunch.

You're on the right track - you're going to need a router since the university is only going to give you a single IP address. And since you're going to want to split up your one address, you're going to need a router to split up the IPs. The access point is the wireless beacon that will transmit your wireless stuff. Are your roomies going to bum off of your access point with their wireless stuff? Just one word of caution, be sure to lock down your MAC tables to prevent people from leeching off of your network.

Yeah also make sure your WEP is on specially in a college. Counter strike... that all depends if your college has those ports open to play the game. so theres no gaurentee Buy a wireless router. and connect it to the cat5 jack from ur dorm. read the directions to set up the network you should also. including the wep. make sure only 3 computers can be allowed in the network and make sure the ip's for the 3 computers are static for more security. but ur rouer needs to have dhcp on so you guys can go online.

Thanks for the help, guys. I think I'm starting to understand, but am still confused on a couple of things. I seem to be hearing some conflicted information between answers I've gotten from different forums. From what others have told me I'll only need a wireless router - a wireless access point would only be necessary if I had a wired-only router and wanted to connect wirelessly to it. Is this correct - I'm fine with just a wireless router? If I had a wireless router, the access point wouldn't serve any purpose, correct? If that isn't correct, I guess I'm still a little confused about what each of the compenents do. For reference, what would just a wireless router do? Just a wireless access point? A combo router/access point? And to clarify my dorm situation... Each room in the dorm has two people, with a bathroom connecting two rooms together. So they kind of come in pairs. My roommate and I are in our room, my two suitemates are in the room on the other side of the bathroom. Kinda like this: |room|==|room| Just pairs of rooms going down the entire hallway. And uselessmitch, we played Counter-strike last year on the college network just fine - we'd just have to click "Play on LAN" in the CS interface and it'd find the games automatically. I imagine it won't be quite as simple this year, as "Play on LAN" would most likely just search everything inside the router, correct? But I think I can just get in by using the IP address of the game. Anyway, I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

"Wireless Router" = a router + a wireless access point (all in one nice compact unit) An additional wireless access point can be useful if you are getting a lot of intereference (some cordless phones and microwaves) and need to boost signal strength. You can typically connect three computers via cat-5 ethernet cable to the router and at the same time have lots of people connected wirelessly. As far as gaming, some game servers only allow one connecting per IP address; and since you will be sharing one external college IP address, you might run in to problems. But you should be able to play anyone connected to the router. Hope that helps