Posted 10 September 2009 - 12:18 PM
You should always, always, no matter what, have your wireless connection secured with the most security you are capable of having and would be able to set up or have someone help you with.
What type of USB wireless device do you have, or will you be getting? If your laptop is not old, like less then 4 or 5 years old, then you won't need anything to plug directly into the laptop because it will most likely already have internal wireless. What is your laptop model?
Then, whether your laptop has internal wireless or you are going to get a wireless device to plug into the laptop, you will need to have a wireless router for your DSL connection. Without that you won't get any signal for your USB device to pick up. Do you have a router? If not, you will need to get one and you'll want to make sure that the USB device, the wireless router and your laptop are all compatible. That basically means that you will need to make sure that if your laptop supports a specific type of wireless (802.11G, 802.11B, 802.11N) you will need to get wireless devices that support that. Or if the laptop supports B,G and N then you can get just about any device out there, but I would suggest getting a USB device and wireless router that are the same (both G, both N, etc.)
I hope this helps. If you can answer the questions, providing more details, more specific help can be provided.
I would never ask a person to do something that I wouldn't do myself.