Looking for recommendations on setting up a wireless network.

Judge-Z

In the next few days my money will be coming in for extra duties at work as well as my stipend from taking a student teacher. With these ill-gotten gains, I will be finally joining the current generation of consoles and picking up an Xbox 360. Since it will be living downstairs, and my desktop and cable modem are upstairs, I'd like to go the wireless route for networking (my wife will be getting a laptop soon, as well). I live in a modestly sized house (1850 square feet) with the potential location for the router in the center of the upstairs. Unfortunately, networking is the one area of computing that I have absolutely no experience with beyond user status. I'd appreciate input on the following, if the PA collective pleases...

1. What would be a good wireless router to get? I can spend for quality, but the more I drop on a router, the fewer games I can get with my 360, so I'd like bang for my buck (especially given the $100 adapter I have to buy for the 360). In terms of capacity, I want one that will be able to smoothly handle..
a. The 360
b. My DS
c. Mrs. Z's future laptop

I plan on leaving my desktop wired, as the connection is right there. The network really won't need to handle much load at once, at most my wife doing some minor web surfing while I play games or work, said work being done on the desktop. So what router will give me a solid, fast Xbox Live connection as well as the other, above uses? I do plan on downloading games and demos from Live, if that makes a difference in recommendations. Is there anything that balances simplicity, performance, and reliability with price?

2. Security. What do I need to know when setting up a wireless network? Is everything pretty much handled right out of the box, with just some tweaking in a control panel eneded?

3. Any other pain in the ass things I might need to know that most new wireless network builders don't?

Thanks in advance, all!

Gamjee

As far as recommending a specific unit, I'm not sure. I use a Linksys WRT54G and have used it for a long long time with minimal issues. The UI is easy enough.

Security wise, Ars Technica had a great article about this just a few days ago actually:
The ABCs of securing your wireless network

DeathPrawn

Buy a Linksys WRT54G (or WRT54GL) and flash it with DD-WRT. Last I checked, the 54G will run you about $50, and the GL around $65. Flashing it can be a little bit tricky, but after the initial setup it's easy to use and the software is rock solid.

Hell, buy two of 'em, and set up one as a wireless bridge for your 360. It costs ya $50 instead of $100 for the official MS dongle, and works just as well.

The Deliverator

DeathPrawn wrote: »

Buy a Linksys WRT54G (or WRT54GL) and flash it with DD-WRT. Last I checked, the 54G will run you about $50, and the GL around $65. Flashing it can be a little bit tricky, but after the initial setup it's easy to use and the software is rock solid.

Hell, buy two of 'em, and set up one as a wireless bridge for your 360. It costs ya $50 instead of $100 for the official MS dongle, and works just as well.

As nice and feature packed as DD-WRT is, it's really unnecessary for what the OP wants to do. The stock firmware will do everything he needs, and not overwhelm him with options.

On the flip side of the coin, DD-WRTing a 54G as a bridge is a good idea, as it's cheaper and significantly more useful than the dedicated 360 wireless adapter.

It really depends on how much mucking the OP wants to do with firmware settings.

Judge-Z

Captain Cactus And The Water Preservation Squad wrote: »

DeathPrawn wrote: »

Buy a Linksys WRT54G (or WRT54GL) and flash it with DD-WRT. Last I checked, the 54G will run you about $50, and the GL around $65. Flashing it can be a little bit tricky, but after the initial setup it's easy to use and the software is rock solid.

Hell, buy two of 'em, and set up one as a wireless bridge for your 360. It costs ya $50 instead of $100 for the official MS dongle, and works just as well.

As nice and feature packed as DD-WRT is, it's really unnecessary for what the OP wants to do. The stock firmware will do everything he needs, and not overwhelm him with options.

On the flip side of the coin, DD-WRTing a 54G as a bridge is a good idea, as it's cheaper and significantly more useful than the dedicated 360 wireless adapter.

It really depends on how much mucking the OP wants to do with firmware settings.

Mucking around wouldn't be a problem, but it ended up being a moot point. I was going to do the bridge thing, but a friend of mine had an extra network adapter (he got two for a gift, and was too lazy to try to exchange one) and was willing to sell it to me for $50.

Thanks for the advice, all, everything is up, running and was an absolute snap. The Ars Technica article was especially helpful. Apparently my neighbors haven't read it, as I discovered their totally unsecured network when setting up the 360. But I like full bars more than 1 bar, so I'll stick with mine!

Thanks again!

Deusfaux

linksys besides their official WET bridge product also sell a WGA which is a bridge specifically designed for no driver needed work with game consoles.

not sure how much that is

security is 4 steps

SSID name change
SSID broadcast off
WPA encryption (or WEP if you need to run a DS on it too)
MAC filtering (whitelist)