First off I'll preface this by saying I'm not hugely up to date on technology, I probably know more than the average person but I'm still a little fuzzy on a lot of things!

Anyway, In my house I've already set up a wired Network with "netgear fr114p cable/dsl prosafe firewall with print server" and use it for connecting to the Internet as well as using a common printer.

We've had that for a year or so, but now there has been a cry from within that some of those with Laptops would like a wireless network.

Since there are already a number of desktops connected to the network I see little reason for them to adopt wireless as that would require new ports and poorer connection. It would however be nice to have wireless for the laptops and keep the ethernet for the desktops.

Is it possible, and if so how would i go about it, to link in a wireless network to my existing ethernet network. That is, keep say 3 computers linked with wires, and a couple of wireless laptops floating around using the same network, with the same access point to the internet and printer.

Any help on how I would go about this, any hardware I would need etc would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers.

The easiest solution is a wireless router. Most will have connections available for 4 wired computers and an antenna to let the wireless one's connect (I use the NetGear WGR614 for this).

Or, you could get a wireless access point. It'd take up one of the wired connection ports in your router and would allow the laptops to connect. The setup is a bit more difficult than the wireless router mentioned above - and the cost is about the same. Many of the wireless routers can also be setup as access points.