New to wireless.... so many questions

Hey all… I’m a new member and have been playing around in hobby robotics for about 10 years. I’ve never tried anything wireless. I just got a free laptop and have have been wanting to play around with wireless. I see that there a lot of posts for the PS3 controller. I also have seen an IR plug in that allows the XBOX controller to work on a PC. Is there software that allows these controllers to to transmit data out the parallel port ? If not, what is a decent, inexpensive receiver ?? Thanks for your help… C Mitchell