Trendnet Wireless N 8mbps and lag spikes

[nexigen]

Ok, first off I'm going to say I'm almost A+ certified but networking has always been my weak-side. I bought a Trendnet Wireless b/g/n TEW-639GR (v2). I fixed one connection issue I had by MAC Cloning my wired PC. At that point I'm getting 20mbps on http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/

I disconnect the wired and activate wireless. I have a wireless b/g onboard in my asus m2n32-sli deluxe. I connect fine but I only get 8mbps on speedtest. My actual connection to the router says ~48-50mbps.

Part 2:

I bought a new Trendnet TEW-623PI (v3) wireless N nic for my other pc. It connects ~270mbps but the connection does not seem stable. At first it was getting around 15-18mbps but now it's down to about nothing.. literally.. 0.5mbps? The connection seems sporadic now and I don't know why... and I'm so ready to just give up and i really hate networking right now since i've been at this for 2 days.

I'm not sure what other info to spit out there, did I make a mistake buying this brand? It had good reviews and was half priced, still around 70 just for the router though. I tried their tech support but that was a bad experience too.

any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[Emerald]

have tried to set the wireless to G-Only mode and use WPA2 security?

 

[nexigen]

I just tried it, same thing, 8mbps rate though it seemed to connect faster.

 

[Emerald]

have you rebooted the modem after you connected the router?

 

[nexigen]

I've rebooted both many times since installation and normally after each major configuration change with 15 seconds power-off.

 

[nexigen]

Wow this is pathetic. Ok so first of all I called their tech support, worthless and a complete waste of time. They're all indian. Then I thought I'd call netgear's. They're indian too. Then I tried cisco routers (linksys), and not only were they also indian I think the guy was the same that I talked to last night from trendnet. I really hate outsourcing and I even asked for someone that speaks english as a native language, she didn't understand what I was asking though. Fine so there's my brief rant, anyone know of a company that does -NOT- do that? I'll switch to them just on principle.

Anyway what the problem seems to be is that this 639GR unit is not only slightly lacking in the broadcast ability, it outright just does not work! 10 feet away in a direct line of site with all 3 antennas pointing to it, is my wireless-G adapter. I get 9mbps. 5 feet away from the router is the wireless n computer. It only works if it's in direct site but unfortunately I have a speaker in the way so it gets 0.1mbps, without the speaker there I get a nice 15mbps. I should be getting 20mbps. So, there's the problem.

Now my next question is relatively simple, the indian chief (tech support manager) said that 8-9mbps is the standard and no router will do better than this. I explained to him about the standard, he said some jibberish and suggested I take it back. Am I mistaken? All I'm asking for is a simple 20mbps connection and I'd have thought I could get it with a $70 router. Is this just not possible? Bad router? Bad name-brand/model? Bad idea all-together? $10 cheapy router with wires? Really could use advice here, networking is my weak spot.