[Hehe]

A REAL hardware firewall is not something people tend to have.

A router saves you a lot of trouble for fraction of money.

On the speed issue, are you sure you have the router properly set up? a good router should not decrease any speed (or at least hardly noticeable) and in multi-pcs situation actually allow traffic to flow faster than a LAN without.

My suggestion: get a decent router (I recommend Linksys higher end routers or Dlink Gaming series, and/or Apple Time Capsule if you want idiot proof solution)

If you have some highly important data to protect or running a VPN, I'd recommend a Juniper Netscreen. Relatively affordable (an entry level can be found for less than $150), high performance, and very well supported (great company/support, multi-layer capable... etc)

At least I used to have very good exp with Juniper about 5 years ago. Some might argue Cisco is better but that's pure $$$$