WRT54G signal is stronger than E1500?

I bought the newer linksys E1500 wireless N router to add another router at our house. I transferred the old WRT54G to my parents's room and for some reason, the E1500 has weaker signal. I notice that when my signal drops to 3 bars or less, the download speed is reduced by half! The WRT54G still maintains full download speed even at half signal. I tried all guides like setting it to 20mhz, disabling WMM, setting channel to 11 but still the same. I can live with the weaker signal but I can't understand why the speed is reduced when the signal is reduced considering this is wireless N already. Is the physical antenna a big factor for routers or did I misunderstood something here?

I will try to swap the routers and observe again. I'm beginning to think that I should buy routers with physical antennas. The range boosting marketing of the newer routers is false as far as I'm concerned.

 

Channel 11 is not a good channel in itself- use inSSIDer to scan for neighboring networks and adjust you channel if needed.
Speed is reduced when signal quality is reduced- it's perfectly normal and it doesn't matter if we're talking 802.11g or 802.11n

 

Ok. Will try different channels. So far our old router is channel 6, the new one is channel 11.

 

About a year ago I bought a Linksys E4200 to replace my WRT54GS thinking I would get greater range. I actually got less range. Thankfully Best Buy took the return and I got my money back.

Now I'm thinking of trying the ASUS RT N66U. I read a good review of it in one of the computer mags.

 

I use a WRT54GL with high gain antennas for my b/g gear and long range access. It gets about twice the range as my WNDR3700. I just bought another one as a backup/development unit.