What are your floors made out of? my mom gets a crappy connection in her room, but if she moves five feet to the south, where she's got a straight line, about 40, 50 feet through the house, but with only one wall, rather than about four or five, she gets a much better connection.

use the run command to open msconfig, what all is listed under your startup tab?
(indubitably, munty has a much more refined way of doing this)