AirPort Extreme Initial Set-up

Hello.
I am getting ready to do a complete switch from M$ to all things Apple.
My wife and I recently started up a business and we made the decision to dump M$ and all of their crap and make a clean complete move to Mac. I just checked, our two MacBook Pro's are now in Anchorage, Alaska and should be here by Tuesday, June 26th. We can hardly wait.
Well when that day does come, the LinkSys wireless router is history. In its place is a brand new AirPort Extreme. So here is the question.
To initially set up the network, do I need to hard wire in from the modem to the AirPort to the MacBook to set everything up initially? Should I contact my provider (MediaCom) and tell them of the router switch prior to setting it up?
I have been doing background reading on this switch for months, and I have not found the answer to this as of yet. I did read back and search this forum on the subject to help make sure I was not asking a question asked and answered already dozens of times. If it has, and I missed the thread, I apologize in advance.
So what say you Mac gods out there? Help a new switcher as he throws his Microcrap crap out and brings in the new fresh Apple line!
Thanks.
R

You'll be able to access the Airport base station over a wireless connection. There isn't any network protection on by default. About telling your ISP, I have no idea.

You most likely don't need to contact your ISP. Look in the configuration of your Linksys to find if you are manually setting the MAC address. If not (and the answer is probably not) then your ISP doesn't need to be involved.

The install and set up of the AirPort base was about 10 times easier than the Linksys unit was. It wasn't however error free. Did end up having some issues, but after working through the AirPort interface software, those were cleared up as well. And no, Mediacom did not need to be contacted they told me. So that was one less interface to deal with. Did have a problem trying to hang a Seagate Free Agent Pro 750GM drive off the AirPort as well. The AirPort insisted that there was something wrong with the drive, and it had to be fixed. Wiped, formatted for MAC and then it was happy.
While my switch from Windoze to Mac has not been completely painless, it sure has been less stressful.