which router/access point/adapter is perfect for wirless netowrking?

`Wireless Adapter: This is usually a usb adapter that allows a hard-wired desktop to become 'wireless'. The wireless adapter communicates over 802.11x and acts as a network card for your desktop. This can also be used for a notebook.
Wireless Access Point: AP is usually used when you already have a router and just need a way for wireless clients to connect to the network. AP does not usually feature a DHCP server or firewall and other fancy features of router.
Router: This allows you to share your cable/dsl broadband connection with one or more computers. This has a DHCP server,firewall, print server etc.
Wireless Router: Same as a hard-wired router but now also incorporates an Wireless Access point along with Wireless Security mechanisms like WEP, WPA etc. Since these run at same frequency (2.4Ghz) as your cordless Phone and microwave, be ready for interference.

Wireless Router is usually the way to go. I have a regular desktop and a 9100. I use a D-Link DI-624 router. My desktop connects to router via a Cat5 cable. Read my previous post here.
This might help..Home Wireless LANs Installation Tips

WAP stands for Wireless access point; many wireless routers can also be configured to be wireless access points.
WEP is a method of incription (which I would recomend!) it ranges anywhere from 64 to 256 bit incryption. I would recomend 128, but 64 is normally ok for home use. (It basically just makes it so that other people can't access your wireless connection and still your information)

I already have a Netgear router, so I ordered a D-Link 7100AP w/ my Inspiron XPS (which is now in the "boxing" phase - ).

I had bought it thru amazon for $74 with $20 mail-in rebate and free shipping, no taxes = $54 which I think is very nice for this router.

You might want to check this out before you buy Microsoft gear

I have an MS G router and it's not bad - I get normal throughput degradation for wireless (I get about 25 mbps over G when the laptop's 4 feet away, and 20 or so when it's down one floor and about 15 ft or so away). For $50 at CompUSA it was pretty good - I dont really need the net router on it, but it does work althrough i've had to reset it one for it to reconnect to my DSL (the router locked up, lol)

WEP is a good deterant. It is roughly the equivalant of locking the doors on your house. Although it is fallable it'll send most casual 'war drivers' to look for an easier network to play with. WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access) is an improvement over WEP and will become part of the 802.11 standard. WEP is weak basically because it uses a single encryption key, WPA along with some other features uses Temporal Key Integrity Protocal (TKIP) for encryption. Which basically means the key changes, making it basically 'unhackable' for any length of time. With regular WEP once a hacker has your key your network is essentially his/hers. If you buy any wireless router/AP on the market today it should support WPA through firmware updates. Other things to look for as far as security goes is MAC filtering, which only allows machines you specify on your network. And SSID disable, which prevents the broadcast of your network name, making it harder for passerbyes to see your network. If you can't disable SSID broadcast atleast change the default name (dont put any info about your network in it) from what it is from the factory. Hackers know these default SSID's and you will be a prime target.

Of course a lot of this may be overkill for your situation. However if you have valuable data or live in an area where people may be likely to be looking for bandwidth to steal, you should try and incorporate as many measures as you can.

I think the best way to go right now is to use an relatively advanced router (with SPI firewall and uPnP - which just may come in handy in the future), and connect it to a wireless access point. This way the two components are separate. In the near future when a better wireless standard is finalized (802.11n I think?), you can simply upgrade the access point and leave the router alone. The router will not need to be upgraded for a while, since I doubt you will need gigabit class of bandwidth.

How does this group feel about the so-called "Wireless Technology" pc cards. Like the Dell Truemobile 5100 Cards. There are also other PC Cards called "Air Cards" or "GPRS" wireless cards. As far as I know, you can get online from pretty much anywhere you can get a cell phone signals but that is all that I know about these. Does anyone else know how these actually work and if they are worth it. I am very interested in them but I dont know anything about them. thanks guys

its just a cell phone in a pc card, pretty much, and you need a subscription to a service (AT&T/tmobile/verizon) to use it

And this service is still pretty expensive. For instance you can expect to pay about $100/month for unlimited bandwidth on Verizon's 1xRTT network (assuming your in a market that has it) which they advertise as being capable of 144 Kbs; but you could expect real world speeds of about 30-50 Kbs.

if you are in DC like i am, you can get on the 1xEVDO net for $80 - 300-500k