question about good home network setup

hi, im planning to make a nice and secure small home network to practice, learn and apply network stuff at home. Im planning a separate hardware firewall and wireless/wired router. I have a cable modem conection to my pc but im planing to make a home network of 3 pc's and maybe in the near future a network storage for stuff.
Im thinking buying a NETGEAR FVS124G http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6833122080 firewall to learn vpn and has a strong protection and security, and i like the D-Link DGL-4500 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6833127243 gaming router so i can have wireless and wired connectivity and play games providing internet to the others pc and connect the network storage. My question is how im supose to connect things?
Cable modem -> firewall -> router -> pc's?
Should i connect the router to the firewall from one of the firewall lan ports? I will apreciate some recommendation and hints. Thanks

If you are using XP you will want to disable the firewall included with the OS in addition to the info from rgeist.

Best of Luck ....:> )

If you want to host any online applications. (Ex. Hosting Games in WC3 or something) You'll want to set assign static IP's to all your machines, open the ports that application requires, and forward the ports to your machine's IP on both the router and the firewall. (If it allows it, I've never messed with that firewall)

Other than that, close all the open ports that aren't necessary to reduce intrusion attempts.

For the router -> You probably want to turn of SSID Broadcasting if you live in a residential neighborhood. This will stop kiddies from seeing your network and trying to get free bandwidth.

You'd also want to enable WPA and set a strong key. Don't use WEP. It's crap and can be cracked in under ten minutes by anyone smart enough to use google.

Anyways, those are some basic tips.