I am sure that this is a remedial question. I plan to buy a new Macbook Pro soon. Currently my iMac is connected to a cable modem. What would I need to buy in order to be able to use my Macbook wirelessly with my cable modem? Thank you.
WRT54G is a great router, never had any issues, and seamingly easy to customize. But since you will have only the macbook (assuming) on the wireless, you might want to consider looking into a wireless N router. While the internet speeds may not be raised considerably you will benefit from range if you plan to take the macbook with you around the house. Another benefit is if you ever decide to file share b/t the 2 macs, the transfer speed will be greatly faster, and noticeably so.
Its actually very simple, connect the ethernet cable from your modem to the singled out port on your router (it will probably be labeled as the WAN port) then their are 4 other ports, connect your imac you want to be hardwired to one of those ports with an ethernet cable.
Then on you macbook pro go to system preferences->network->airport->check mark "show airport status in menu bar"-> go to icon that looks like 4 curved bars over each other, located in the menu bar and choose your network name.
If you pick up a linksys router, by default it will be the network name "linksys", of course this is assuming that you don't use a internet providor that makes you use a username and password each time you log on, as is the case with some DSL (not cable internet) providors.