What is Verizon's name for the wireless service you have?

If it's the EVDO, then the web page I cited previously shows devices
that'll make your network connections a lot easier without all your
systems depending on one for the connection. By "devices" I mean
external wireless modems with Ethernet, routers, etc.

I can understand your frustration (I used to live in NM when working
at White Sands Missile Range in the early 1960s), and though I'm in
the heart of Silicon Valley now neither cable nor DSL were available
until a few years ago which is why I had Sprint Broadband using a
microwave transceiver looking over San Francisco Bay; picture here:

<http://thadlabs.com/PIX/LX200/>

Sprint's EVDO service provides a free USB wireless modem. If Verizon
did the same for you, tossing that USB device costs nothing and you
can buy an Ethernet wireless modem which will simplify many things.

You'd also need a router/firewall with NAT; these are ubiquitous and
the D-Link and Linksys/Cisco seem to cost around $50 and have a good
rep. I recently helped a friend in Pendleton OR (really out in the
boondocks) get setup using a Trango M900S broadband wireless trans-
ceiver and a Linksys BEFSR11 cable/DSL router (which really works
with anything because its WAN port is Ethernet).

The hookup is simply:

V---[modem]---[router]---[LAN switch]===multiple computers on LAN

"V" is the antenna, the modem/transceiver is transparent, and the
Linksys router makes/accepts DHCP for its WAN IP, and the router's LAN
IP range is 192.168.1.*

My Sprint Broadband setup was conceptually identical as is what I
have now; the only thing new (for me) is a different type of modem.

For you the modem could be a standalone EVDO unit with Ethernet.