I've finally gone and ordered the wireless router although I intend to use it wired for the time being. For the ethernet cable does it have to be crossover or will normal suffice? (maybe a stupid question)
I'm still awaiting a phone call back from Microsoft however over the problems with my Xbox. The guys at NTL said they could ping my Xbox so they believe the Xbox's software is at fault somewhere (something to do with the Network Address Translation apparently) so I'm a sitting duck hoping this router will solve the problem all together.
