If you decide to follow these directions, I'd recommend a slight change. Instead of putting the box in the closet, put the box in the mail, addressed to me. I'll pay the shipping. I've had nothing but good luck with Linksys routers.

My all time favorite router is the Linksys WRT-54 GL . It isn't a new "N" router but the G signal is still way faster than the internet connection anyways for the vast majority and it has extra RAM so you can improve it even further by downloading dd-wrt firmwware and installing it on the router to make it more stable and robust. Very cheap reliable solution, at least in my experience. As I'm finishing this post I'm noticing that they're $65 now and they used to be around $45 so dirt cheap is no longer an accurate description. Still reasonable for what you can do with it in my opinion.

Edit: I am also all about avoiding the use of installation CD's in general. The idea of an installation CD is that it will install a program on your comptuer that will automatically connect to the router and do the configuration that most people don't know how to do. First of all, for many connections there is very little configuration that is neccessary, if any at all. Secondly, learning how to do neccessary configurations (such as increasing security) is not difficult at all with a quick google search. Less things installed on your computer = happier computer. Just my opinion....