Wireless at last!

I've wanted a wireless router ever since I bought a wireless-enabled laptop about 18 months ago. But after reading so many reviews of people having total nightmares trying to set up their home wireless networks, I was a little reluctant to make the switch. Also, most cable/DSL routers were quite expensive at the time, especially ones which supported the more secure WPA encryption. Well, today, my brand new Buffalo Airstream wireless router arrived from Amazon UK. Expecting all sorts of nightmares, I warily opened the box.

My wireless network was literally up and running within a few minutes. The hardest part for me was physically having to crawl around, relocating the modem, connecting everything up, etc. The actual router set-up was pretty straightforward. I had a slight attack of the horrors when I decided to set up WPA encryption, but couldn't find WPA or WPA2 in my list of options. It turned out they were there, but under different names. I'd already prepared a 63 character WPA key, so I added it, changed the SSID from the MAC ID to something else, and enabled the hardware firewall, so I'm now nicely secure. I really can't believe how easy it all was. Had I listened to some of the hysterical reviews on Amazon, I'd still be tripping over a load of cables. The router only cost £33.99, too - a bargain, given its signal strength and speed. The price has now gone back up to £39.99, so it looks like I ordered just in time!