I love my Internet router

For most folk a router is something to pass by and not least because they seem complicated and costly. I'd remembered them from the days of ISDN for Internet access - where businesses told tales of their router dialling up needlessly and incurring scary phone bills. But now, with cable and ADSL and with routers costing much less than before, this is the way to go.
For example, if you have ADSL on the line you'll have a DSL modem connected to a PC. If you have a couple of machines (and maybe a ethernet linked printer) you also need a hub or switch to wire them together. You could connect a wireless LAN access point to the hub or switch - this allows a laptop with a wireless LAN card to join in the fun so you can surf, transfer files and print from around the building. The cost of this a year back was £120 for the modem; £60 for the hub and £120 for the wireless ap plus the fact that the computer with the modem has to be on the whole time. Enter the Netgear DG824M at £140 and you're really flying. The price is good, the result is tidy and setting the system up is fast and elegant. The Netgear DG824M plugs into the ADSL part of the phone line and a network cable (supplied) goes from the PC to this modem/router. Insert the CD and a utility helps your PC to find the router and configure it. This worked exceptionally well - setup runs through a clear browser-based wizard built into the router. The jargon is explained in the same screen, the dial up settings are remembered by the router. Thus left and ignored indefinately you essentially have a unit able to deliver Internet as if it was electricity. Plug a PC into the router with an ethernet cable, tell the PC to use the LAN to connect (it'll then use your Router at 192.168.0.1 as the Internet Gateway). This makes a peer-to-peer network where you can share the Internet link, transfer files and share printers. The DG824M has ethernet ports for three other PC's - if you have more than this you can link to another hub or switch.

You can connect wireless clients (eg a PC with a Wireless LAN card) to the router to pick up the Internet. What you can't do is connect to it using another wireless access point. In other words, two wireless access points can't normally talk to each other. I put it down to the stupidity that was built into networking.