I went and did it, and got a wireless network access point for my apartment. I’ve been wanting to get one for a while, but the prices were a bit prohibitive; now, with the release of a newer wireless standard (and much talk about yet another standard), prices have fallen like rocks, and it seemed like a good time to buy.

All in all, setting up the access point and a single wireless node took all of about 10 minutes, and was completely painless. I got Linksys access point and router/switch, based both on reading reviews and on price; for the client side, I got an Orinoco Gold PC card, as it is the de facto gold standard, with what appears to be the best driver support and farthest range. Despite the presence of a few 2.4 GHz phones in the apartment, I get excellent throughput on the network, and no discernible interference on the phone.

Happy happy!