Eli Bendersky's website We now have a home wireless LAN set up, through which two computers are connected together and to the internet.
The wireless router is RTA1025W from Rotal (a generic firm offered by our ISP) - it has all the standard things: USB connection, 4 RJ45 for regular Ethernet and an antenna for a 802.11g wireless connection. It is also connected to the phone socket for the 1.5 MBps ADSL connection with the ISP. One computer is our home PC - connected through a Zydas ZD1211 USB-to-wireless Adapter, and another computer is Anna's work laptop, a Centrino Thinkpad, so it has wireless built in.
After some setup pains (see yesterday's post) the network now functions pretty well. To protect it from intrusions and sniffing, I've set up an access list on the router (a list of the MACs allowed to connect to it, in which only the MACs of our two computers appear) and enabled 128-bit WEP encryption. I know WPA is stronger but I had a problem setting it up (perhaps my adapter's driver doesn't fully support it). 128-bit WEP is enough for me though - after all, it's not the NSA I'm hiding from, I just want privacy from curious neighbours. It should also make it impossible for others to connect to my network and steal bandwidth.
I also like the way the router protects my computers. Since it has NAT enabled, no outer entity can access my PC at its will, without me initiating the contact - all attempts will stop at the router. This is because when NAT is enabled, my real IP is hidden, and only the router's IP is visible to the world. I'm still keeping my Sygate Personal Firewall on, however - to watch better over programs on my PC attempting to go to places they aren't supposed to visit.