We have high-speed cable Internet service at home and just got a laptop with wireless. The cable company wants $250 to set up and $8 per month to maintain it. Can't we just connect a wireless router to the cable modem?

Depending on the details of your service configuration, you should be able to hook up a wireless router and make it work. Typically, the device plugged into the cable modem automatically picks up its network address through the modem at start-up.

Many wireless routers also will assign IP addresses to your local PCs. Disconnect the computer that is plugged into the cable modem. Connect the wireless router in its place, and start it up. That should get the wireless router on the cable network.

Take the PC that was connected to the modem, and plug it into the router. At this point, the wired computer should be connected to the Internet.

Use the wired PC to configure the router with its wireless settings. Once the wireless settings are configured, you can disconnect the wired computer from the router. Make sure that the 802.11(a, b, g) abbreviation dialect your wireless laptop speaks matches what the wireless router uses.