Troubleshooting wireless issues?

I know this is an odd place to request this kind of help, but I figured I'd give it a shot since Verizon doesn't seem to be helping any...

My girlfriend's and my room is directly over the "office" which is where my Verizon router is. There are no cordless phones near it. I make sure that all "extraneous" equipment (such as my dad's bass amps which are also in that room) and other peripherals are shut off when not in use.

My old room is down the hall from our room. Neither of us ever experience connectivity issues there.

We also have Linksys access point setup in my dad's room, which is right next to my old room. This makes a grand total of 2 (two) wireless networks on my home. I have set it up and made sure the channels do not interfere with each other.

Alright now that you have the physical setup in mind, here's the actual issue:

My girlfriend and I are both using clean, virus-free, error-free Macbooks running OSX 10.6. We have no issues anywhere in our house except in our room. While in our room, we experience slow speeds (as low as 36 kbps down/up) and intermittent connectivity. When mine works, hers doesn't, and vice versa.

I have to go in and delete/re-add the wireless network several times, restart the computer, powercycle the Verizon router, and after about an hour, everything works, but only for a little while. Once I fix one of our computers, the other one will start having issues. It is very frustrating.

My girlfriend is at home right now and just ran two speed tests, 5 minutes apart.

First results were 16 megs down, 140 kbps up
Second results were 910 kbps down, 140 kbps up.

My brother is in the room right next to ours. His speeds seem to be constant at 11 megs down.

I work for an ISP, and I know that very rarely does the computer have anything to do with the speeds. As stated, my Macs are clean: virus and error-free. Also the walls are sheet rock, not brick or concrete. Also, when I say we are right above the office, I mean my floor is the office ceiling.

That was a lot of reading, and I apologize. Here's my question: does anyone else have similar issues? I can login to the Verizon router, but does anyone know what settings I should change in order to ensure everyone shares the bandwidth equally?

I was thinking (off the top of my head) I would not put it past Verizon to mess with the other network anyway or be messed with by the other network? Have you tried disabling one network when you want to use the other?

I do not have your problem, I have Comcast and only one network but using our microwave in the kitchen blocks our internet signal (router in the room above the kitchen) and, recently, when I turn off my computer (5 feet from my husband's computer), the whole internet dies/has to be rebooted.

I would pay a bit for one of the Geeks Squad/On Call sorts of people to come out and see if they could figure it out since Verizon won't/isn't responsive?

The linksys network has the same issue in our room, but is fine anywhere else in the house. I'm beginning to think that it might be our room. Maybe it's possessed by internet ghosts or something. lol. But seriously, every time I call Verizon, the technicians don't seem to know what they're doing. I've done all the troubleshooting I could possibly do. I posted this on Verizon's forum, maybe they might help there. I'll keep you updated.

From your main router, connect the ethernet cable from it to one of your macbooks and run a ping test. Your Internet Service Provider should have a dedicated ping test on its website. Run it first on your macbook, then connect your girlfriend's macbook to it and run another ping test, making note of the download speeds and upload speeds to see if there is a marked difference between the two macbooks. There shouldn't be, but it's worth doing a test anyway.

Next, phone your ISP and request Remote Access. One of their technicians will take over and test the sort of things they know while talking to you on your phone. Make sure your router is not anywhere near metal objects and electrical sockets/plugs.

We have a desktop on the main router. Would it make a difference just running the ping test from that one and exclude the macs, or should I do the macs, too? From my experience, doing one is usually alright.

Do the macs too. Won't hurt.

Now you told me your desktop is a recent machine, it would be interesting to see if the cable jacked into either of your macbooks will make a difference. Again, Remote Access could check your desktop's setting just to make sure.

I actually don't think my ISP has remote access ability. I'll check though. Can't hurt