My first question is what brand of wireless networking equipment will work with all three computers. I do not want to share files, I only want to let all three computers go on the internet. My second question is what pieces of equipment will I need.
Any 802.11b or 802.11g wireless router should work fine with all of them. There are various Linksys boxes that are pretty cheap and that most people like. I think they're kind of shoddy. I have an SMC Barricade that's worked like a champ (though the first one had a bad wireless module out of the box).
A cheap Linksys model is the BEFW11S4. A cheap SMC is the SMC7004VWBR, which I see you can get refurbished from outpost.com for $20. Mac people seem to like Netgear and Asante, too. Of course, you can get an Airport base station, which is kind of the Cadillac option. It will be really easy to administer from the Mac, but will cost a lot more. I think "a lot" is something like $200, so you'll have to decide if tighter integration of the configuration instead of using your browser to control things is worth it to you. There may be refurbed older airports for less money, too, though I didn't find any at Small Dog.
The cheapest option of all, if you have an airport card in the imac, is to just use the "software base station" option. However, under OS 10.1, that had some kind of funny problems. I haven't talked to anyone that's used it on a newer OS X system.
If you go the hardware route, you need the router, a cable (not a crossover cable) to connect it to your DSL modem, and that's it. You'll use the cable you previously hooked to the modem to plug your imac in. I'd get something that has four ports instead of one, so you can plug in other wired gear if you get it. You'll configure the router over that wired connection in order to get the wireless stuff working.
Mike Beede
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