I hope you have as much fun with your wireless network as I do - its great and the ability to work on some large integer multiplication programs while watching 24 and instant messaging my girlfriend anywhere in the house is great.
I recommend 802.11b based networks for most home use. I really can't see the necessity for 802.11g networks unless you have a ridiculously big internet connection pipeline or you want the latest and greatest hardware. Don't worry much about mixing and matching hardware from different manufacturers, as your network will run fine. I used three different brands of hardware, and had little problems with it.
Keep a pen and paper handy when setting up the router and the wireless clients. You may not remember the service set identifiers (SSID) or the channel. Make sure you change the default password for the router and the default SSID. Remember to install the drivers first, the support software doesn't piggyback a driver install.
Linux users need to do some research before purchasing a wireless card. Make sure there is a driver available for it, or you may end up buying a license from Linuxant for $20 US. While I have no problem with Linuxant, it does seem like its defeating the purpose of buying the card if you have to buy a license to software to use your card. Be prepared to figure out a few things about how your distro handles wireless devices since it may not be obvious.
I think that all wireless users should use WEP, unless you have a damn good reason not to. Since most people do some kind of internet based purchasing or banking, it makes sense to try to hide what you're doing online.
Thanks to
Dev Hardware for a chance to write this, and if you think this tutorial sucks, I suck, or wireless networks suck, come over to the
Dev Hardware/OCAddiction forums and speak your mind.
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