I have a Netgear WGR614v6 wireless b/g router. Connected to the router via ethernet I have an HP desktop (WinXP), and a command line linux box (ubuntu 6.06) set up as a web server. The router is on a shelf about 2 feet above the HP. I also have a Macbook (running OS X.5.2) in my bedroom/studio, connected via wireless (50% signal strength right now). My connection is 3mbps cable.
In the past I have gotten very stable and fast connection speeds with the Macbook and have not had many problems. When I ran a speedtest from the Macbook a few months ago, I got a result above 2.2mbps.
Over the past few months I've noticed a gradual decrease in both wireless speed and stability. When I ran a speedtest recently from the Macbook I got 500-700kbps. File download speeds have slowed to around 60KB/s for bittorrent, http, and ftp. The connection also cuts out occasionally. I did notice that switching to WPA from WEP seemed to make the wireless connection slightly more stable.
At first I thought it might just be a distance problem, even though the same setup had not caused trouble in the past, so I plugged a wireless adapter into the HP desktop next to the router, and unplugged its ethernet. I had been getting a speedtest result of 3mbps over ethernet. Now, on wireless, with 100% signal, I was getting 600-800kbps, and webpage loading times had slowed enormously.
Also, I've noticed just this last few weeks that when I am downloading something over wireless with my Macbook (even though the download speed is only 70KB/s), the wired connection on the HP slows to a crawl, basically making it almost unusable.
Any help in sorting this out would be greatly appreciated.