idiots = me

right now, I have "wired" internet through U-verse for my desktop and a verizon "thingy" (technical term) that plugs into the laptop.

We have a wii, a couple dsi's and now received an Ipad for Christmas, none of which are connected. What's the easiest and/or best way to get my house wireless. If it makes a difference, it really doesn't matter if the desktop is connected or not. It's old and we probably don't use it for interent more than an hour or 2 a month, and that's before having an Ipad.

Couple thoughts....
1. Are the personal "hotspots" that verizon carries any good? I think they are setup to connect 5 devices?
2. Does anyone have the wi-fi and 3G Ipad? If my house was wireless, the 3G may be overkill?

Just buy one of those routers that will give you wi-fi through your Uverse. All you do is connect it to the internet and you'll get internet anywhere in your house, and can hook your wii up to it.

Pretty much any modern day router will do. You plug the part that goes into your computer into the router, and then you can plug another networking cable from your computer into the router (there will be a few ports for hardwired connections.) Follow the install instructions that come with the router. Be sure to password protect it if it isn't by default. Also, I would recommend renaming the router if it comes with a generic name like "LINK382" because there will end up being a "LINK812", "LINK408", and "LINK772" in your area and you will have to spend brain cells memorizing which one is yours.

As far as technical specs, the routers are usually differentiated by a letter after the 802.11 code. A & B are really old and you would expect to see them in a garage sale somewhere. G is the primary technology in use now, but N is definitely newer and faster and should be what you go for if you are buying something new. If your neighbor has an old G router, but doesn't need it anymore, you certainly can use that instead.

Just looking super quick, here's a 802.11n for $30 from TRENDnet: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications ... CatId=2668
D-Link for $40: tigerdirect dot com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5650958&CatId=2668

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"All crowds boycotting football games shouldn't care who sings or takes a knee because they aren't watching." - Nas

i just went through the same exact situation. i bought a cisco valetplus wireless router at walmart for just under $100, it set up in about 10 minutes and could not have been easier. i bought a nice router based on a suggestion from a geek friend who knew i was into streaming movies through my network, and he said i should buy a decent router for that kind of thing. all i can say is that my network is working great, streaming movies through netflix to my TV, allowing we access to my itouch, and allowing my wife to use her nook wirelessly.

A few questions:

1. What kind of building do you live in?
2. Will you be connecting to the internet from different floors?
3. How many of the devices will be connected and actively using the internet connection at any given time?

Let me jump into this with another question. We have a PS3, ( thanks for the earlier recommendation) we get internet from somewhere outside, but we keep losing our signal. What is as AOSS, does it work, and how does it work. Does it matter if the internet signal is not ours?
If none of this is good, whats the best way to fix this problem.
Thanks in advance

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Nothing to fear but fear itself, and me.

Get your own internet connection.

As far as AOSS goes, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AOSS