Foo - How do I password protect my wireless network?

I have a desktop with a router that broadcasts the signal to my other computers. Can someone tell me how to set it up so that a password is required to access the network?

Are you talking about a password to connect to the router wirelessly or a password to log on to the network in general?

I haven't set up a password to get onto a network in a million years so it escapes me, but here are the basic things to do to protect the wireless router (there are more ways, too, but this generally does the trick for home networks):

Enable WPA encrytion (or WPA2, etc, depending on what your hardware supports). To do this, find the wireless security features on your router's page and plug in a passphrase (you can get random passphrases from the 'net).

Disable the SSID broadcast.

Enable MAC address filtering.

There are more ways, too, but that will get you started and it is 300% more than what most people do.

I basically want to prevent my neighbors or anyone else for that matter from logging on to my connection.

I basically want to prevent my neighbors or anyone else for that matter from logging on to my connection.

WEP or WPA, and disable the b'cast SSID. Most people won't even realize that you have a router running at all.
I say "most people" because there are active packet sniffers which can find non-broadcasting routers' SSID tags. Unless your neighbours are really geeky and have it in for you, it's probably not something to be concerned with.

Have a computer pro do it- pay 1 hr labor, and be stress free.

enable mac address filtering, that way only the mac address you've allowed will be able to connect.