| You can do away with having a PCMCIA card in the laptop by buying either one with wireless connectivity built in, or going for a Centrino based laptop. These are a little more expensive than normal laptops, but use the power saving P4-M chip which performs very well for its low clockspeed, and have wireless connectivity built into them. Some also have bluetooth. The fact that it's all designed as a mobile chip means this is the best option for you if you want decent battery life.
For your wireless router I would recommend the Linksys 54G Broadband Router, which can be had for under £100. There have been reports of the newer silver plastic cased Netgear devices overheating and having dodgy firmware, so I would be keen to avoid them at this time. |