Cut the wires...you won't be sorry.
I use both Linksys and Netgear hardware and both setup and work like champs. Virtually invisible once you get it set up.
Be sure to enable security like WEP encryption keys, especially if you live in an apartment, or dense urban area. This will lessen the chances of someone catching a free ride on your bandwidth or worse. You may also want to go so far as to limit the MAC addresses to only those cards on your physical network. This pretty much excludes any network card outside your network from connecting to your DNS server and obtaining an IP address.
And Jimmy is right...get an 802.11g wireless access point/router and you'll be happy as a clam.
For your desktop machine, you can choose either a USB external wireless adapter, or a PCI card. The PCI card good, but it may take up a valuable slot in your PC. The USB adapter works great and gives you the added flexibility to locate the antenna module on top of the PC or on a wall, as most of them come with a 3-6 foot USB cable. You will find that antenna placement is generally not an issue, but reception can be affected by certain types of EM radiation (from some sodium or flourescent lights) and/or radio frequency interference from cordless phones or radio scanners.
For a laptop that does not have the capability built in, you will want to choose a PC Card wireless adapter. You may want to look at one that is designed to operate with the T-Mobile network. Pretty much any 802.11b/g card will work with T-Mobile, but they do have some proprietary protocols that supposedly "enhance" the operation of your connection when you are in a "Hot Spot". I think all Starbuck's have this service and most major airports and hotels. It's way cool to just plop down in an overstuffed chair with a steamin' cup of coffee, flip open your laptop and start surfing at the local Starbucks. It's so Jetsons!
