Please review my network proposal

Hello TGForumz members!

I want to revamp my LAN, and I have put together what I think is a decent setup, but I wanted to pass it by you for your opinions and critique. I also have a few questions.

Currently have a fixed wireless (microwave, Sprint) Internet connection,
about 6mbps down and much slower up. The modem first hits an old Netgear RT314 FW/Router, then goes off into hubs, a Netgear wgr614 wireless router, and from here go into different rooms in the house.

The house is 2 stories, but is very wide. The modem and networking equipment are on the bottom floor, close to one edge. Wireless signal is spotty upstairs, especially on the opposite side of the house. There is CAT5 going from the network room to just about every room in the house. There are a couple of desktops connected via CAT5 to the network, and a few laptops with b/g cards.

Originally I was thinking of getting a repeater (access point?) for the WGR614, but now that I think about it, I want to refresh the "backbone" of the house and retire the RT314.

I read that the Netgear wpnt834 has great WAN/LAN and LAN/WAN performance, and I am assuming that even with regular g wireless cards on the laptops, the wpnt834 has better range than our current WGR614. It seems like this would be a great first link from the modem.

This is a diagram of what I want to do:


Modem
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wpnt834-------(wired?)-------wgr614(AP to extend wireless range of wpnt834 to floor2)
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8 port 10/100/1000 switch,like the Netgear GS108?
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various computers (throughout house), including a couple NSLU2 NAS controllers

The modem, wpnt834, and 10/100/1000 switch are all in the network room downstairs, with ports connected to different rooms in the house. I would put the WGR614 upstars.

We have no gigabit computer modems, and the NSLU2s are max 100mbps, but I figure a gigabit switch will insure that the backplane capacity is adequate for a bunch of LAN traffic among computers and NSLU2s.

1. Does this look like a decent setup?

2. Do you think my current RT314 limits our current network performance? (LAN or WAN?)

3. Is the range of the wpnt834 when used with regular wireless g laptop cards mode any different from any other wireless G device?

4. Is this netgear GS108 8port gig switch appropriate for this setup? Will its jumbo frames feature speed up LAN traffic for me (and if so, how do I set it up to work with the two wireless routers?)

5. If this setup looks good, do you have recommendations on device configuration? (e.g. hard set ports to 100/full?

6. Is running CAT5 between the wpnt834 and the wgr614 the best way to extend the wireless coverage? Can/should I use the same SSID for each? or should I repeat the signal wirelessly?

7. Will the wpnt834 and wgr614 have competing/conflicting signals, even if set to different channels?

8. Do I need RIP enabled to make this setup work? Is that ideal, or would static routes be better?

9. If / when I need to forward ports to an IP within my network (bittorrent, games, whatever), would I only need to do so from the Router, or do I need to configure the swich to pass the traffic onto the computers?

Thanks for any help!