Need help with Home wireless network.

[Diablo2K]

My current setup is:
Linksys WRT54GS Running DD-WRT
MSI US54SE USB Network adapter
Trendnet USB Network adapter with Hotspot detector.
Router and computers on seperate floors about 50ft apart.

I am losing packets. My computer is getting a signal of about 60, (4 bars with the windows login app) the router says it is recieving a signal of 66 with signal quality of 32%. I am guessing the low signal quality is causing alot of the problems. I cant even play a single round of BF2142 without gettting kicked right away for "Losing Key Packets"
when I run Pingplotter I do see dropped packets, less than 1% over about an hour. the packets I am losing seem to be from servers further down the route, I am not losing packets between the router and computer. but at steps 5 and higher.

I am thinking about getting:
Linksys WRT54GX Router
Linksys WMP54GX wireless NIC
I don't want to run DD-WRT anymore so compatibly with that aint an issue.
I don't need a super fast setup, I only have a 8meg cable connection and dont transfer files from computer to computer. I just need a good clean signal.

Also is there extansion cables for the antenna on the WMP54GX, I am willing to spend some time finding the best location for the antenna but I need something longer than the stock cable.
Is there any good aftermarket upgrade Antenna that is cheaper than the linksys brand, the linksys ones cost as much a a whole router.

I am going to be spending $140 for the Router and NIC and don't want to have to spend any more than I have to for a good quality signal.

 

[zacdl]

If the packets aren't being lost at your home LAN, but 5 hops into the Internet somewhere, changing your hardware won't change that.

 

[Malk-a-mite]

I am going to be spending $140 for the Router and NIC and don't want to have to spend any more than I have to for a good quality signal.

Before you spend any money, plug your computer into the router with a piece of Cat5, if you are still having the same problems you can be sure it's not related to your wireless. As the poster above said, if your pings are escalating at the 5th hop and beyond there is going to be very little you can do about it.

 

[Diablo2K]

There are 2 other computers hooked up to the modem that don't go thru the wireless router. Niether of them have any problems with packet loss. One of those computers has 2142 on it and has no connections problems like this one does.

Most but not all the packet loss hapens 4-5 or more hopps away, but some do happen at the router. I think maybe the ping tool aint useing large enough packets to show the same problem I am having with 2142 or something like that, because the instant I join a map I get the punkbuster error that I am losing Key Packets. things were going well with this setup for a while. but I cant get them cleared up anylonger, resetting the router to factory setting dont help and no amount of tweaking helps either.
I dont know why I have a signal strength of 66dbi but a signal quality of only 32% with 66dbi shouldn't i have alot higher of a signal quality then what I do?

[edit1]here is a cap of Pingtool you can see the ping spkes right after the router. and some high average pings all down the list. There was only one dropped packet during this test however. This was taken over 5 minutes with 1 second intervals and a 56k packet size. I dont know what setting I would need to change to simulate a Battlefield 2142 Online game running but would like to see what that looks like.

Also sometimes when I try to get into the Routers settings I get a page thats pure text, no graphics or anything. it like its on a Low bandwidth mode or something or i cant even get the pages to load at all.