I purchased a wireless router so that my grandson could use his laptop and I could use the desktop while he was staying with me for several months. It was a real pain to get established and make it work with the cable/DSL company. I bought a CNet CWR-854V. The cable company would tell me the problem was with the router. The router company would tell me the problem was with the cable company. After two weeks of going round and round, I got a tech from CNet on the phone and we worked our way through pages and pages and pages of diagnostics before the ruling finally came down that there was something wrong with the router.
They replaced it, it hooked up easy peasy and no trouble since. You have to make sure it is not blocked by walls, objects, other things with a wireless signal (phone, monitor, etc.) And you should also set it up from the beginning password protected so that all your neighbors don't use it too.
It was worth the money (not all that much) and I keep it on even though I have no wireless things. But, when any of my family comes to visit, they just pop on and off the internet from any other room in the house easy as pie.