THanks to all for all the help...I decided to go with getting the Buffalo router and setting it up as an access point in the middle of the house. After hours of dicking around and finally calling tech support (nice that Buffalo has 24/7 reps), it now works and I can happily have fast internet in my room.

It seems as though internet is one of my basic survival needs...I don't know how I would have survived 2 weeks of having to move to the den to use it!