My preferential poison when it comes to small network routers is to buy a Linksys WRT54GL and then have them load DD-WRT or OpenWRT on it. They work flawless as long as they aren't in a boiler room and you have more options then you'll ever need!

But yes, I generally have lots of issues with clients with the $20 routers. Amazing how everything just works when I make them buy something that's at least SOHO grade.