Anti Virus AND firewall are a must. Don't think about connecting to the net without them or you will have a worm within 20 seconds.
Don't bother with Tiscali, they will charge top dollar, this does answer my Q though, standard ADSL modem router
*Cough* PC World have the following in stock at £40
LINKSYS WGKPC354G WIRELESS 54MBPS MODEM ROUTER AND LAPTOP CARD
http://www.pcworld.co.uk:80/martprd/...ull&tabIndex=1
Ignore the not comaptible with XP, its usual PC world not knowing what the heck they are talking about. Its chuffing ethernet FFS.
Available by collect at store so you can reserve one then call in to pick it up. Dead convienient even if it is PC world. Linksys kit is decent quality(I have one).
There are many others but TBH this would be fine and its cheap( I paid over £100 for my first modem router)
(Forgot to add, teh PCMCIA card will be handy as a spare if teh laptop is already wifi enabled.)