Help in choosing a Wireless Router.

My current setup is a single computer running XP Home which has a broadband cable modem connected.

However i have a new computer in the basement with XP Pro and I want to connect the two.

The setup will be used for basic internet access, gaming and sharing files.

Im looking for a good unit for about $50 (CAD) which is fairly easy to use and setup.

Thanks in advance.

D-link, Linksys, and Netgear are the big name brands. I've had Netgear routers and D-Link routers, both worked great. It all comes down to how much you want to spend for what features. WPA is a must nowadays.

It depends on the features you want. If you really want wireless-N standard hardware, you can get it, but I'd recommend waiting at least a generation. I have heard that many (perhaps all?) of the -N standard routers can adversely affect nearby wireless networks (the bad-neighbor effect).

I didn't want to spend quite so much, and I wanted an additional feature - a USB port on the router that connects to an external USB HDD to make a (probably slow) network file server. I chose the wrtsl54g linksys model, which at 100 is a little pricy but has some truly excellent firmware being developed (open-source) by some people. If you don't want the USB or special features from third-party firmware, just read the reviews on newegg for the things in your price range and pick something with what you need.