Wireless network driving me nuts! help?

Ugh. I've been fighting with this for some time now.
I've got two laptops, a PS3, and an Xbox 360, and a wired desktop,

A while back, my Linksys WRT-54G kept resetting to local only mode, so we replaced it with a Netgear Rangemax N-Gigabit router.
Now, the Linksys gave crap wireless signal to the Xbox and PS3 that are located about 30 feet away from it. Getting 20% signal was a good day. I expected more out of the Netgear, but no go.

I tried flashing the Linksys bios to a 3rd part DD-WRT bios, but it didn't help. Although what it did do was open up a wireless repeater function, so I though I'd try that.
Today, I was able to set the Linksys up for repeating after two hours on the phone with Netgear's tech support. It worked great...for about an hour. Then the Netgear Router switched itself to Local Only mode and the laptops couldn't connect. So I had to reset to Netgear and start all over. But now, I can't get it to work at all. I can connect to the Linksys with the PS3/Xbox, but the Netgear isn't letting the Linksys connect to it at all like it did before.:confused
I'd go with the powerline adapters, but Netgear says they can't be used with power strips...and I've got a few of those.

Any Wireless gurus here got any clues on how to do this and maintain stability? The house seems to be a black hole for wireless signal. Unfortunately, I can't move the router to a closer spot, because it must be near the modem and desktop computers.