Changing my broadband to WiFi. What do I need to do?

[Generic Brad]

My iMac family has grown with the addition of two iPod Touches. Everyone in the house wants to surf the web simultaneously!

Currently I have a broadband connection. What do I need to do to get my home set up as a WiFi hot spot? Is it as simple as switching out my box or do I need to get a router? Obviously I have no clue what I need to do. I just know what I want for an end result. What do you seasoned experts recommend?

[moggie]

1. You COULD do this without any new hardware

Assuming you have a Mac with wireless hardware, you could turn on "Internet sharing" (System Preferences -> Sharing). This shares the Mac's wired connection via wireless, effectively turning the Mac into a wireless router (in addition to its existing duties, of course). This only works when the Mac is on and awake, and security is inferior to a dedicated router, since it supports only WEP encryption, which is easily cracked (so a neighbour could, in theory, after a bit of effort, use your Internet connection and read your traffic). But for occasional use, where you turn it off when not using it, it might be adequate.

[NoQuarter]

2. Airport Extreme base station (router)

or an Airport Express if your Macs are not equipped with the latest 802.11n wireless standard. (The iPod Touch is an 802.11g device.)

[47of74]

3. You should get a wireless router

Being somewhat general here, you should get a wireless router. Such as a Airport Extreme Base Station or similar router. The Airport can handle up to 50 connections at once, which in most cases is a lot more than home users ever need. You'll then need to plug the network cable that comes from the broadband modem or other device into the Airport and then use the provided base station utility to set up the connection.

What I have here at home is an antenna that looks like a satellite dish. However it doesn't point at a satellite. It points at an antenna about three miles from my house which provides broadband service. The broadband modem is built right into the antenna, so the installer just ran a CAT5 cable from the antenna right to the back of our airport extreme. This company assigned us an IP address which I entered manually into the Airport configuration utility and then once that was done we were on line.