I am planning on buying a dell laptop soon and i wanted it to be wireless. Currently at my house I have three computers all networked together but with a cable connection. I still want to keep the three computers, but in my room i dont want cables hooked up to my laptop. How do I go about making the laptop wireless?? I have recently heard stuff about routers and maybe they could help?? Any help WOULD be much appreciated as do not know much about this stuff! - PeaceWelcom to the Forum.
There a re a lot of people here to help you.
The first  question is: How fast is your current Internet Service?
In general, the best solution is to use a  quality router that has the modem and wireless built in.
I would suggst  one of the units made by a company called "2-Wire" for a good unit at a resonalbe price.
However, don't go buy anything until you find out what your service provider normally uses for a wireless router.
Im still trying to get my head around routers. If I have a cable internet connection in the room NEXT to me and I plug a wireless router into that connection, will that send signals to my laptop without it requiring any cables???  Your Cale modem has more that just one Ethernet connection. Four connections, -Right?
Yes, plug in a wireless router to the modem and it will send the signal to any n laptop with 802 dot 11 wireless. In that case a suitable router might be one of the Net gear models.
Can you try this?
start > Run > CMD [enter]
then al the prompt type:
ipconfig /all

You might see something like this:
Code: [Select]        DNS Suffix Search List. . . . . . : gateway.2wire.net

Ethernet adapter Wireless Network Connection:

        Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . : gateway.2wire.net
        Description . . . . . . . . . . . : 802.11g/b Wireless LAN Client
r
        Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 08-10-73-07-8F-30
        Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
        Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
        IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.75
        Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
        Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.254
        DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.254
        DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 208.67.222.222
                                            208.67.222.220
        Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Tuesday, April 21, 2009 9:12:
        Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Wednesday, April 22, 2009 9:1

Notice I have a wireless: 02.11g/b Wireless LAN Client
In you cse there will be different information.
Plese not eh following:
  IP Address
   Subnet Mask
   Default Gatewa
   DHCP Server
   DNS Servers
That information may be NEED to set up a wireless router.

But  there is an alternative. Yo could just get an accuse point unit..
HOPE this does not discourgae you. It is not really hard to do.