Before you spend any money's - If you have a usb cord that you can borrow that will allow you to move that usb network adapter around a little, you might find it works fine when moved even just a foot or two away from where its at. Also you might install something like inSSIDer and check/watch your signal strength to make sure youre not on a same channel a neighbor is using which will be degrading yours. Here is a link that might be useful: http://www.metageek.net/products/inssider/

Thanks so much for the offer, Bob. We do have Cox Cable, and it is connected to the TV monitor. Our VCR-DVD is a Toshiba DVR620KU, and the TV is a Samsung Led TV monitor, SyncMaster, series 3, TA350 and series 5, TA550, whatever that means. I don't know which letters and figures may be useful, so am repeating them all. I am sorry for not having gotten back to this problem for several months. There has been illness in the family, as well as computer problems, which are now solved, hopefully, with the aid of a friend, and what with personal problems and job demands, I just didn't feel like concentrating on the TV/recording problem. What I want most now, and can't do, is to record TV shows. Not HD or HBO or anything--just a few KPBS or sit-com things. Our TV cable service is basic. A visitor showed me that with an HDMI cable, I can watch tapes and DVDs from the Toshiba unit, a step in the right direction. However, I seem unable to bring up anything on the TV screen that will let me record to either the tape or the DVD. There is no place to plug in a coaxial cable to the Toshiba, so I figure that any recording would have to be from signals sent from the TV. (In fact, even if I could send signals directly from the cable connector in the wall to the Toshiba, there would still be no way to select channels to be recorded.) The problem is that all the ports and other places for hitching the TV to the Toshiba are labeled "IN" and, unlike our old TV, there are none for "OUT". Well, Bob, or any other kind person, does it seem that there may still be a way to record to the Toshiba device? Even to be able to record to VHS tapes would be great.

Ooh. "Riding for a decade or two" with the pace of technology today is ... well, it's not going to leave you very happy, I don't think. 20 years ago, an IBM AT was a state of the art computer and the (commercial) Internet was a twinkling in someone's eyes. What you're talking about can be done in a slightly different manner than you're stating. There are combination LCD monitors/TV monitors (many of which come with built-in tuners) which can be used to show TV programs on your computer screen (sometimes as picture-in-picture). I'm not aware of too many LCD TVs which advertise the ability to hook up a monitor, but I will admit to not paying much attention to that market because ... well, OK. I don't watch that much TV and my 20" Sony CRT will be here till it dies. :-) Anyway, it is possible to do this now. One thing to think about, though, is whether your family is OK with TV use competing with computer use on the same box. If you have another computer (for the kids or whatever), it's far more do-able to combine the two. If you want to watch TV while the kids want to get info on harbor seals for a school project, well, ... Another thing: right now wireless video is not quite there. Video (especially high-definition) takes a tremendous amount of bandwidth; if you can use it at all on your wireless network, everyone else on that network will know about it. At least for now, a wire is best. As far as learning more, I would search for the term "convergence" along with TV or video or computer, etc.

assuming your laptop has an HDMI out port and your TV has an HDMI in put port then you can use an HDMI cable to connect the laptop to the tv, you will need to set your tv input to that particular HDMI input so you can view what is comming from the laptop. to go back to what you regularly watch simply hit the input button on your tv remote and go back to the input that your dish is set up on. Depending on the laptop you may as mentioned have to change a few minor settings. That is the basics of it.