Wireless signal to a basement dilemma

[cwsiggy]

Alright, my new space I'm renting is a basement room (yikes) Nice house though [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] - I need internet, and their cable and setup is on the 2nd floor. Approximately 50 feet from the signal source if a straight line was drawn.

They are willing to let me run a Cat5 out one of the holes in the wall and down the house to my basement window (not a problem at about 50 feet - Cat5 can go to 360 or so without degradation of signal - so......

What is better? Wired or should I try the newer pre N massive range wirelees routers like the Netgear WNR854T or Belkin F5D8230-4 I've heard horror stories about wireless simply not being able to penetrate down to a basement. I have thick plaster ceilings.....

Any recs apprciated.