Airport Extreme Card, Linksys G wireless -- no range

[CaptMurdock]

I'm lucky if I can get more than five feet away from my Linksys wireless-G router before the Airport Extreme says it's getting no bars. My son also has an Airport Extreme card in his iMac; connection is always iffy, even though his computer is barely four feet from the router.

Do I need a wireless-N router? Is there no backwards compatibility here (e.g. shouldn't a wireless-G router be able to work with wireless-N Airport Extreme cards?)

Thanks in advance.

 

[BlueRevolution]

Yes, N is fully backwards compatible. Is your router's antenna attached?

 

[CaptMurdock]

Yes, N is fully backwards compatible. Is your router's antenna attached?

As near as I can tell. It has two antennas, both of which are attached to the router. Don't see anything else to do with 'em.

Edit: as my son has insisted, I must point out also that, even when we don't move our machines relatives to the router, the signal strength varies.