Question about network security, got a wireless router for Christmas...

[wjaholic]

Alright, Basically I have 2 computers here in my apartment. 1 of which has access to the internet the other does not. My mom and dad gave me a wireless (and cable) router for Christmas so that I can connect both to the internet. I can figure out how to network the two via cable but my big question is the wireless connection. I don't want to have my internet open to anyone else in the apartment complex with a wireless connection.  What is the best way to deal with something like this? Eventually I will use the wireless but I want it to be as secure as possible.

Anyone have any advice?

[gocirino]

Make sure you put in a password if not anyone can use it.

[Duster440]

You can set up a firewall (basically a password or code) in the wireless router (check instructions for the router itself) so that your computers can network through it but other PC's cannot. Even if you're not using the wireless feature right now, someone else potentially could.

[Sixpak]

Read the manual that came with the router. There will be a section in it that will describe setting up security protocols like WPA and also setting a password, so that any wireless pc trying to access your connection has to enter the password first. Any pc wanting to access wirelessly needs to either enter that password every time, or it can be set up to hardcode the password into the pc to automatically log in with the correct password. It's pretty simple to do.
As far as a firewall, most routers today use something called PAT - Port Address Translation.Basically your router assigns network addresses (something called a DHCP server is built into the router) to the pc's that connect to your router, but these addresses are from a different, unregistered network address range set aside for typical user networks, and is different from the one you get from your ISP. The router maps the ones it assigns  to the one you get from your ISP. In that way, the router 'hides' your real IP address on your local LAN from the rest of the Internet, acting like a firewall, without installing all sorts of firewall software. 

[flyboy01]

I bought a netgear router about a year ago, I called their support and they walked me through it.