The son has an XBox on the other side of the house, and I want to set him up for online gaming. I'd LIKE to connect a wireless ROUTER to my PC to allow him to do this. Having never done this before, I'm a little concerned about potentially subjecting myself to a subsequent week of torture, troubleshooting and tech support.

If I have all the hardware (LinkSys 802.11g wireless router, onboard NIC, XBox wireless adapter) and no experience, where's the best place to go for a simple EXPLANATION of what to do and how to do it, and to be prepared for any issues that may arise?

Thanks.www.xboxhope.com ?

ACTUALLY I would recommend (gulp) Microsoft's site, or a gaming forum (computing.net?)I should clarify. I'm not concerned about the XBox end of it; I'm more worried about what I'm getting into on the PC side of things once I plop that router in between my computer and my modem.A hardware firewall can be a good thing for all concerned. I think that is the easy part to do,but I predict the whole setup takes less than 15 minutes even for a Doofus.  

Plus when you get your new laptop you will be ready to connect that as well.   But there is configuration involved, right?Minimal! What hardware do you have?Minimal! What hardware do you have? Linksys home page can get you started. You can setup the router with any computer wired to it. (It goes between the cable modem and that comouter), You go to the homepage for setup with your browser and follow the simple directions from the manual (preferably) or the linksys website.

One suggestion. Do not enable WEP until everything works fine. Once you make the changes to the config page (setting workgroup name, etc) any computer that you plug into that router has full access to the internet at a similar speed to what the lone, free standing computer originally had.

When you get that wireless, you just plug in the card and make sure the settings match - channel, type of connection and add workgroup name to it and you are on. Takes less than 5 minutes from when you get the wireless card out of the box. With a hardwired computer, there is nothing to configure if you USE DHCP. It is ALL automatic.

XP SP1.
Athlop XP 2400
2 x 512 RAM
Radeon 9550
2x40GB HDD

VIA Rhine II Fast Ethernet Adapter (onboard)
LinkSys 802.11g wireless router

Black chair
Brown desk with three drawers Quote

XP SP1.

Black chair
Brown desk with three drawers

...LinkSys 802.11g wireless router...