THE SUMMARY 1. Thanks to all of the major geeks who have been providing terrific advice. 2. Some of you raised the inevitable question about how one isolates the local computer(s) from the Internet "wild" of community access (see below). 3. I remain interested in hearing recommendations for AP hardware. Thanks to your comments, I am definitely convinced that 802.11a is not the way to go. ==== CREATING TWO "LOOPS" THAT ARE ISOLATED FROM EACH OTHER BUT THAT USE THE SAME INTERNET CONNECTION ... Here is what I'm thinking ... I can easily put my two desktop machines on a wired network. The Internet connection thus would be "shared." There would, in effect, be: 1. One network for the wired machines (that allows sharing of peripherals). 2. One network for the wireless machines (that offers Internet access only). QUESTION: How do I make it so that BOTH NETWORKS can share the same Internet connection and be invisible to each other at the same time? Also, I get a little confused about the differences between routers and switches. Note: My wife has a laptop that I want to go wireless. I'm thinking we will all be satisfied if it is walled out just like the other wireless users. P