Grinder wrote:

Do you have a drop ceiling? Put it up there, or on top of a bookshelf,
or under the desk?

I live in a VERY small one room efficiency apartment
and trying to keep clutter down (extra wires, devices,
etc). I am graduate student as well so cost is issue
too

I don't have a desktop at the moment but thinking of
buying one and using it as a wireless router for my
laptop as well....

so the desktop would have a direct WIRED connection
from the cable company INTO the unit.... and the relay
wireless signals to/fro my laptop via the wireless card
IN the desktop....yes?

The desktop would be leaved ON all the time and act as
an "entertainment" center for me.... music, iTunes,
netflix ....as well as having more horsepower for some
of the app's that don't run well on my laptop

I just didn't want to buy a stand alone router if not
needed...just more clutter for me

but I may be missing something.... is using a desktop
in this manner just as good as any stand alone wireless
router... or do the routers have some advantage I'm not
seeing given my example above?