Router firmware

Dear fellow Geeks

As a new member of the Geeks community, I thought I may as well take advantage of it. Here it goes... What firmware should I use on my Asus WL-520GC. Is the default firmware sufficient?

The only time I have 'messed with the firmware' was with my Pioneer DVD drive. Honestly, updating the firmware didn't affect the performance of the drive, enough for me to notice at least. I heard Chris talk about the firmware he uses on his router/s. Does this open source firmware boost the signal of the wireless connectivity 'from 50% to 100%'?

I currently do not have any devices using the wireless capabilities of the router, however plan to do so in the future.

Which leads me to my next question: which technology suits PC's (and notebooks I suppose, ruling out PCI) for wireless Intranet? PCI cards are out of the question, because they 1. don't have all that great range and 2. are PC only. I will be considering a USB plug-'n'-play device unless I am advised otherwise.

Yours geekly



Deco