Advice? Upgrading an 802.11b Network

My home network hasn't been altered in 3 or 4 years: the cable modem connects
to an SMC Barricade router. That router feeds the main desktop, an industrial
networked printer, a spare desktop, and a Netgear MA401 wireless router. The
system has been rock-solid over the years, with none of the sporadic grief
that seems to afflict so many wireless networks. It's used to communicate
with several laptops - an XP Pro T20 Thinkpad with PCI network card, a Vista
T42 Thinkpad with inbuilt mini-PCI networking, and an XP Pro Dell C610 with
mini-PCI networking.

As an aside, that particular wirelss router appears to be the poor stepchild
of Netgear. It never got much attention, received little in the area of
upgrades, and didn't stick around very long. Strange.

I'm toying with the idea of upgrading to more contemporary equipment, to get
at least .g and maybe (desireable?) .n connectivity, and the improved security
beyond my current equipment's 128-bit WEP. I probably don't need any upgrade
- the speed is generally fast enough and I can always use a wired connection
for anything oddball (extreme cases like, say, the XP SP2 download). But
sometimes things get done just because.

Any particular equipment advice for someone in this situation? Would I keep
the Barricade or go to something with Gig speed? I'd presumably replace the
router, the PCI card, and the two mini-PCI cards for something that could
support WPA. I don't need to spend megabucks for industrial-strength
equipment, but the cost isn't really an issue otherwise.

Appreciate any discussion.

Art

 

WEP is essentially _no_ security.

Buffalo high-power (non-N) wireless router, and related adapters.