For those of you who are happy Wii players, I ask for a bit of knowledge. 

a)Is it important to get a memory card?  I believe the Wii has a hard disk, therefore is a memory card necessary, or simply advisable (and is it)?  Do GameCube memory cards work on the Wii? 

b)The Wii can only connect to the net via a wireless connection (I believe), therefore does one need to set-up an unsecured wireless network?  How exactly does go about getting the Wii on the web (which I believe is important for updates and such the like)? 

c)Any other logistic issues that one should know about before setting up one's Wii?

Thanks, I hope everyone is loving his or her Wii

-avatar!

1) No.  Games save to 512 megs of internal flash memory.  You can also back up all of your saved data onto SD cards through the included SD slot.  Gamecube memory cards can be used only with Gamecube games in the Wii.

2) There's an adapter coming out to let you use a wired internet connection, but in the meantime you're stuck with wireless.  The connection does not need to be unprotected; there's a place in the Wii to enter the access code for the network.  That said, my connection in Japan is unprotected and I've had the easiest time of all the Wii owners I know of getting the thing to actually connect.

3) Nothing specific that I can think of.  I'm loving the fact that the thing is TINY and can be crammed into really small spaces on entertainment centers.  Be aware that if you're one of those people who projects their TV images onto a wall and keeps game systems in the back of the room, the sensor bar cable isn't going to reach all the way to the front.  I'm surprised how many sites have actually complained about that.

We only have a wired broadband connection in my househould so I bought the Nintendo Wi-Fi USB Connector to get my Wii online, and it's working great.

a) Nope.  The Wii comes with 512 MB on the system.  The SD card is for backing up Wii games and Virtual Console ROMs.  However, NOT all Wii games can be copied to the SD card, for strange reasons.  Elebits and Metal Slug Anthology save files, for example, will not copy to the SD card.  So, you can't take those saves to a friend's house.  The Virtual Console files are tied to the machine, so it's really just for backup purposes only.

b) The wireless works the same way as the DS wireless.  I think the Wii can handle WPA-encrypted networks in addition to the standard WEP encryption.  Yeah, a USB Wi-Fi adapater connected to a local computer will give you the wireless you need.

c) Do not have any other strong sources of infrared or reflective surfaces nearby.  The Wii sensor bar projects infrared signals the Wii remote needs to receive for some games.  Any other sources of infrared or reflective surface will interfere with the Wii remote.  Usually this causes the pointer to be a bit jumpy.