I'm running XP PRO on my cpu. I live in a dorm room type of building. I want to share my broadband with a guy down the hall to save $$. How do i limit access to the internet so only people who chip in can get on? what hardware would i need other then a router

Well buddy what you need is a linksys wireless router. The when you open it up and look how to install it and such, you will reach the setup page for the router. 192.168.1.1 using internet explorer. The you want to look for the page that says enter a WAP key. This is the equivilence to a password. Only the people who know this can access the wireless network. When you install the wireless cards into the computers that will access the network it will say do you have a WAP? And yes you do and enter it in! And away you go!!

You should also disable the router from broadcasting its name, so that anyone who tries to connect needs to know the name of the network. And of course change the name from the default in the router. You must not forget to activate the MAC-address filtering either. It would also be a good idea to disable DHCP, and enter the IP:s manually into your computers. If you follow all these steps the network will be much safer, since the WEP-keys are always in hex, and thus they are not so hard to break. Good luck