Poor wireless signal? - how to improve the range of your wireless network

I recently set up a new wireless router at home and was disappointed to find that I couldn't connect to the network whilst upstairs. This didn't make a great deal of sense as I live in a house that's only ten years old so it's pretty much made of cardboard - hardly the stuff that's likely to block wireless signals!

The solution was pretty straight forward.

All I did was to connect to the wireless router (browse to https://192.168.2.1 - it's an SMC device), sign in, access the "wireless" settings and change the channel from the default of 11 to something else.

I re-connected to the wireless network from my Vista client and observed a much stronger signal - getting 4 out of 5 bars whilst upstairs.

Many of my neighbors have wireless access points that also default to channel 11 hence there was a great deal of contention.  

I wonder whether the signal will reach out to the garden...?