Help connecting for a newbie please!!

Firstly hello to every one, im a total newbie in the UK as im sure you will find when you read my post,

I am try to set my Laptop up wirelessly, i have an Acer 3003lc laptop, i am unsure which wireless card to go for (which one my laptop can accept) as i have looked on ebay at the PCMCIA cards and there are so many with such differences in price and i dont know what to go for, i am also trying to purchase a wireless router, and again am unsure which to go for, im on a pretty tight budget so cant afford to buy the best on the market, could anyone offer any advice?

Im currently with Virgin Media for my broadband connection and get pretty good speeds up to about 5mb, would i lose speed being wireless?

Sorry for such a detailed question with a lot of help needed but it would be much appreciated if you could offer some advice,

Thanks in advance

Froggy

You will lose some speed with wireless, due to encryption and extra networking translation.

I don't know what choices you have for equipment in your country, but I would suggest sorting out hardware first by affordability, then by product reviews, and finally by problems and complaints on online message boards.