Okay. You guys are great. Clearly the collective wisdom is not to throw money at the problem - but figure the problem out. Owbist - in my thread on not connecting my husband's vista laptop to our network, I tried quietly, methodically to troubleshoot the issues - to no avail. I found lots of similar frustrations on google - but no solutions that worked - and I think I tried them all - at least to the best of my ability. thanks for those great, easy-to-follow instructions to transfer to an external hard drive. He'll want to do that anyway - even if he keeps this computer. This computer guy is pricey - but where I am in DC they seem to fall in the $125-140/hour range - and they can usually fix a problem. Others that charge $40-75 - that the uninformed think are good - but their know-how is less than what I find here. I tried a few of those locally recommended guys - and they accomplished the simple tasks but also made mistakes I had to hire the more expensive guy to fix. My main complaint with him is that he's wedded to his biases - he hates Vista - so his recommendation is usually to avoid or ditch it. Our struggles with Vista seem to often be how often we're blocked from things or performing simple tasks have all sort of obstacles - for "safety's" sake. Thanks to everyone for pointing out that Windows 7 is just a revamped Vista. I got my first issue of Smart Computing and they were tauting it and described some features I thought I'd love. DA - if W8 is in process, is there any indication of what it will be like? Probably worth waiting for - or at least waiting to hear more about how Windows 7 is panning out. So I'll keep plugging away on my other thread to get him connected. If I don't succeed by Tuesday, the computer guy will come and fix it. I guess we'll stop there. Thanks. Lynn.

Thanks for the suggestions so far. We do not have VOIP, this router (although marketed for Vonage) was a close-out and thus, cheap. We only use the internet connectivity part of the router. We have no telephones at all. There is no possibility that anyone else is using our bandwidth. For one, we are subject to FAP and believe me we would know (our allowance is 185 MB a day in downloads). Also, even though it is a wireless signal, it isn't that strong and someone would have to be on our road, on our property, pretty much right in front of the house to use our signal. So, no, there is no misuse of our bandwidth. We do not use a firewall. We have tried them, and simply did not like how much they slowed down our computers. The router nor the Hughes Net modem does not have a firewall. We don't want a firewall on our systems. I also feel that our antivirus and spyware programs are suitable for our needs- I don't want to add any more programs- our machines are not "souped up" modern machines but they serve our needs well. In other words, small hard drives and enough memory to do what we need to do. We use the Tea Timer in Spybot, along with the browser protection. At one time we had Spyware Blaster, but in recent months we just rely on SpyBot. We have well-maintained systems and adding any more protection programs would be overkill, in my opinion. We have used the internet for several years and have never had a virus or spyware. Our computers are used mostly for schoolwork, although we use do use webmail. We do very little pleasure surfing. The router did not come with any software at all. Only the user guide on CD.

Yes, if your neighbors are using your network they will be using your bandwidth, but that does not affect the signal strength. If you have a limit on the amount of bandwidth you can use, it would affect your total usage amount. For example, I use cellular wireless broadband, and I have a limit of 5GB per month. If someone else were using my network, I'd soon run over my limit. Of course, that isn't the only reason to have your network secured. Keeping your information private, especially if you do any online business transactions, is paramount.

Lynn, I now see more clearly what you're trying to do. It's much like setting up a network at home. When you're sharing internet with 2 or 3 computers, you'd be setting up a router (such as a Linksys) with wireless capability. First you'd need to setup the router with an encryption. The manual for Linksys has good instruction on how to set it up. This will only allows computers that share the same encryption number to be within the network and will keep the others away. The nearby computers will see the Linksys ID but will not be able to get into the network without the encryption number. Since you're the owner, you have the choice of who to give that encryption number to once you had it set up. This number can be changed at anytime you feel a threaten nearby. I normally use the Linksys auto encryption number because it uses a lengthy combination of letters (case sensitive) and numbers which makes it difficult to hack into. What Jane explained only works if you're not setting up a network. When you set up a network, regardless of whether you're using wireless or a cable, all 3 computers can still be seen if allowed to. Each individual computer within the same network can be set up so not to allow other computers to see it. The only thing they could see is a list of computer's name within the network. Windows have a network security feature in the Control Panel that allows you to set up what you want to share and what not. For example, all 3 of you may want to share the same printer and nothing else. As far as hacking, by setting up an uncrypted router (hardware firewall), you should be pretty safe. Plus, each individual computer should also have a firewall software installed. This is the 2nd protection. A professional hackar (or whatever you call him/her) would probably not interest in your type of business to go through the trouble of hacking into your network. Think of it as your home have an alarm system but your neighbor doesn't. Guess, which home the burglar would rather break into? As for within the network, if all 3 of you trust each others enough to share the cost of internet service, I don't see a reason for worrying with one of you hacking the other one's computer. Do you? If you do however, then, it's best not to share the internet service. You may want to set up a rule to let each others know right away when one of the computer is stolen. If that ever happens, change the encryption code right away to prevent the stolen computer entering into your network. Keep in mind that the your friend's computer won't be able neither until you provide them with the new code. Someone already mentioned, it's best to always set up a password and 'lock up' (not log off) the system whenever you're walking away from it for a few minutes. I know you probably already know some of these things. I just add the info in for other readers that may need it.