WiFi Speed and Connections FUBAR

[awarsh]

Hello, I have Dell XP and an Acer Vista laptops. Both connect via wifi to my ISP cablemodem. A couple of months ago we started having performance and connection problems on both of them.

The old W2K PC connected through the Wifi router's enet has no problems.

Performance (using DSLReports tests) - both laptops are 20-25% the through put of the wired PC.

Disconnects - get them every 5-15 minutes.

Remedies tried:
Changed Wifi routers
Moved Dell to 2 feet from router
Unplugged cordless phone
Unplugged wifi enabled BluRay player
Verified WZC is off on Dell (didn't bother checking Vista box)
Changed Wifi channel to an unused one.
Using NetStumbler verified that the Dell's signal strength is maxed out.
One wifi router was a ZyXel B/G unit and the other a Netgear RangeMax B/G/N.
Both laptops are B/G units and I see 54 mbps for both.
Dell (sitting next to router) shows no bad packets, no errors, etc but still get 200-500 Kbps while the desktop gets 2-5 Mbps using the same test within minutes of each other.

RESULTS - Zero, zip, nada change - we still have crappy speed and drop problem on both units.

 

[awarsh]

Update on original post: Got a Belkin B/G router and am getting 7-14 mbps out of the WiFi now. Have tried swapping back in the Netgear and it's immediately back to 500-700 kbps max.

Any clues as to why one router works and two others don't?

P.S. I've done network admin/design/maintenance since ethernet max'd at 10 mbps so I know what I'm doing. This one just baffles the heck out of me.