SLOW file copies 1.3Mbps over WRT54G

The computers can all access the internet perfectly and running bandwidth tests indicates that I am getting 5Mbps. I use Windows XP pro and have file and printer sharing enabled to copy files from one computer to another. The problem is that the files take forever to transfer. I moved a 100MB file last night and it took 10 minutes...that works out to about 1.5Mbps. I should be getting something well over 30Mbit over the wireless connection. What configuration setting do I have that is screwed up?

I have had slow network issues for many years, going back to the Windows 2k days, maybe even further. I never really paid much attention to it. I am starting to transfer files around the computers more now and it is just making me go crazy.

I did a ping -t on the routers last night and got responses averaging 4ms on the wireless router. I got around 1-2ms on the local router. Ping did timeout about once every 10-20 pings...on both routers. I don't know why the local router would timeout. The wireless router did get a few pings around 900ms, but very few. The routers are maybe 30-40 feet apart and have 1 or two walls between. I have increased the transmit power on my routers a little bit to make the connection more stable.


Computer info:
They are all fast, one Athlon XP 3200, 2 Core2Duos
They all have fairly new installs of Windows XP pro SP2 and SP3
They have minimal software installed
AVG anti-virus
Zone Alarm or Windows standard firewall
DHCP network settings.


Network info:
I have a wireless bridged network using 3 Linksys WRT54Gs loaded with OpenWRT. The network is bridged by using WDS...not lazy WDS. I have set the MAC addresses to only connect my routers. WEP encryption is enabled. I would prefer WPA, but when I tried to configure it in the past it caused lots of issues. OpenWRT is version WhiteRussian 0.9, I am using the X-WRT web-based interface for configuration. I can SSH and use the linux commands, but I prefer to use the web interface if possible.