Improving Indoors Wi-Fi Reception?

VirtualUK asks: "I was given a WiFi base station and PCMCIA card for my laptop as a Christmas present so that I could read slashdot...urm I mean work, in any room in the house. When I read the manual it stated lofty figures of being able to work up to hundreds of feet inside office environments, so I felt that it would be more than capable of being able to allow me to stay connected in my tiny house. It seems however that the WiFi gods are against me as I tap this posting in the next room to the WiFi base station, a mere 20-30 feet away, just regular so-thin-I-can-hear-an-ant-fart walls, no kryptonite, no lead cladding and yet still I struggle to get a constant connection. I've found that shifting the laptop to face different directions sometimes helps, but as should it be this hard at such short range? Is there anything I can do to make my WiFi work better in a house environment?"

Brand?

[cpthowdy]

It would help if we knew what brand your gear is, maybe there are some known issues, firmware/driver updates, etc.

Any other 2.4 ghz devices?

[missing000]

like phones or a oft-used microwave?

Re:Any other 2.4 ghz devices?

[cooldev]

Or somebody else nearby with Wi-Fi...

Try changing the channel. I had bad range with my Linksys until I changed it to use channel 11.