wireless and router

[Jumby]

I'm not sure which section this should be in, but here's what I'm trying to figure out. I have a cable modem connection with my desktop. My wife always wants to use it so I decided to get a wirelwess PC card for her laptop and use it through a wireless router (I guess), so she could surf with her laptop at the same speed. I just bought a Linksys Wireless Access Point Router, and a Wireless PC Card. An ethernet cable came with the router, but I don't have an ethernet cable running from my modem (just the USB cable, and the modem cable). Although there is a ethernet plug on the cable modem. Where do I plug stuff? To me, the directions seem a little confusing (nothing new). And I assume I install the Linksys software on the laptop or the desktop. Am I making this more difficult than it is? Thanks

[hiredgoonz]

Connect the ethernet port on the cable modem to the WAN port on the Router.

Connect one of the numbered ports on the router to the network card in your desktop. If you don't have a network card, you'll have to get one, or get a USB network adapter.

To configure the router, use your desktop (after it's connected to the router) to bring up a browser window, type in 192.168.1.1 (the default for Linksys products) and follow the instructions to set everything up the way you want.

Once this has been done, install the wireless NIC in the laptop, install drivers, set it up per instructions and as long as the moon is in the right position you'll be fine.

The hardest part about wireless networking is setting it up the first time. I highly recommend NOT enabling WEP or any other security features until you get an active wireless connection working.

Once you're live, enable the security features one at a time, making sure you stay connected after each change...once it's set up correctly, it should work beautifully...