Judy- It would be the same. Some of the broadband modems have a router built into them--so you would want to know whether yours does or not. If not you want one and it could be that you would use the same wireless router you use for your lattop--I do. You can connect it for your desktop via cables and still use it for the wireless connection to the laptop. What a router does is serve as a hardware firewall and with broadband being "live" connected 24/7 to the Internet it serves to only show anyone trying to access your computer the router and not that you have a computer behind that router. So it protects your computer from outside bad guys. <g> It doesn't totally replace the need for a software firewall in that if there is anything bad ON your computer it won't stop from getting OUT to the Internet like a software firewall will do. So you really need both. Hope that makes sense. Joan In a message dated 4/26/2010 7:22:21 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time, Bluetea54@aol.com writes: Hi, My new high speed connection seems to be working OK Thanks for the suggestions, especially signing on to AOL. Such a simple task, yet I was apprehensive about trying something new. Joan, you had mentioned a router. Is this the same kind of router that we need for the laptop (wi-fi)? Any suggestions? Thanks Judy