I prefer Netgear, since linksys (soap dish), always game me some troubles. I recently bought this linksys - http://homestore.cisco.com/en-us/Ro...551966VVviewprod.htm?icid=Linksys-thumb-E4200 , and it could not cover all rooms. I put back Netgear. Linksys did exhibit a bit faster downloads.
I'm currently doing this project. Google "ipcop"... you can burn a CD that boots up in your firewall machine and installs Linux and ipcop software. After that you program the firewall via the internet and it doesn't even need a screen or mouse/keyboard... and it's open source which should [still no guarantees really] give you a firewall with no backdoors built into it...