Sharing a wireless internet connection
 

I have Vista on my laptop, my wife has XP on hers. I've googled but haven't come up with an answer for this: is there a way to purchase wireless access on one of the laptops in a hotel and allow the other PC to connect through that one, thereby helping us avoid paying for two connections?

You can use internet connection sharing, described here for the vista machine

http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Win...b14771033.mspx

and here for the xp machine

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/306126

You can also buy a travel router, like this one:

http://www.asus.com/Product.aspx?P_ID=9H8EmdWucHDpYOb8

The important caveat on ICS is that you will be sharing to the second computer using a wired connection unless you have 2 wireless adapters in the first.

You cannot run two SSIDs through the standard Windows WiFi support - this requires additional software / driver support.

By the way, for those that haven't tried it yet, Internet Connection Sharing is INCREDIBLY easy on Windows 7.

My wife and I were out and we both needed to get online. I tethered my laptop to my phone, and then within W7's Network and Sharing Center it was literally like 1 or 2 clicks and I had established an ad hoc hotspot that my wife could route through. I was really impressed.

Does this mean that one machine has to be connected to the Internet via an ethernet cable or that the two machines have to be connected together via an ethernet cable?

plug in a crossover ethernet cable and bridge the adapters.

Either one. But one machine can't be susbscribed to the hotel WiFi and also sharing with other computers on the same radio.