Any way to increase transfer speeds between laptop and desktop?

[MaxDSP]

My laptop is on Vista Home Premium, and the desktop is XP Pro SP2. Desktop is hardwired to a Dlink router, and laptop is hooked to network wirelessly to th router. Even though I'm sitting right next to the router, mysignal strength is only 60%

I'm transferring some media from desktop to lapop, and getting about 1.5 Mb/sec (mp3's mostly). Any tips or ideas? Speed I'm supposedly connected at to the router is 54 Mbps

 

[screw3d]

Just connect an ethernet cable from the router to the laptop when you are transferring a lot of stuff? 54Mbps is just the theoretical limit..

 

[MaxDSP]

Tought about that but I sometimes roam around the house while files are transferring. Maybe for the bulk of it I can leave it wired and let it transfer for a few hours