Connecting to the Internet with more than one computer can easily be accomplished by purchasing a router. The router is connected to the broadband modem and each computer, so it acts as an access point to the Internet. An additional benefit to using a router is that many include a hardware firewall, which provides added protection to any computer that is connected to the router.

The way a router works is that it obtains the IP address from your Internet Service Provider (ISP). This is the IP address that is used to access the Internet.

To connect your computers, the router assigns separate, internal IP addresses to each computer that you connect to the router. When a computer requests information on the Internet, it sends the request to the router. The router will then send that request out to the Internet using the IP address it is assigned by your ISP.

Once the Internet server processes the request, it then sends the data back through the Internet, which is eventually retrieved by the router. The router than determines which computer, based on the local IP address that was assigned, that request the data, and then sends the data back to the sending computer. This is how a router can be used to share one Internet connection with multiple computers.

Now one thing to note is that it is important to secure your router before using it. Make sure you change the administrative password on any router that you will be using to prevent unauthorized access. For wireless routers, you need to secure the wireless connection as well as anyone with a wireless network adapter would be able to connect to your router. Once they are connected, then that can use your Internet connection, and perhaps also access the computers on your network.

If you make a mistake when securing your router, or can’t remember your passwords, or just want to start over with securing the router, you can always reset the router. It isn’t difficult to reset a router, and there are many guides online that explain how to do it, such as this guide that shows how to reset the WRT160N wireless router.

If you have more than one computer that you would like connected to a single Internet connection, you should go invest in a router that can easily do the job for you.

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