Very slow wifi HELP

Hello, I picked up a Compaq CQ-60433US Laptop 3 days ago.

Immediately when I got it home I installed windows 7 64 bit RC getting rid of all the hp bloatware that comes with a storebought pc as quickly as possible.

So far the laptop is great except I am having random disconnects on my wifi

Which is an atheros R5007 802.11g/b wifi adapter
I cannot get above 50kb's when surfing and downloading eventhough the connection I am using is 8 MBPS cable.

Even 50 feet away in direct sight my signal strength is weak to my apple airport extreme router. My brother's Macbooks have no signal problem.
The network has WEP2 Security on it (Is this the best to use?)

Can someone please tell me how to properly configure an AR5007 wifi
Here are my settings:
802.11b preamble is set on long and short the other option is "long only"
Network address is set to not present
Recieve buffers is set to 512 (256 was default)
Scan valid interval is set to 60
Transmit buffers is set to 256

Those are the only settings I can see under the wifi adapter properties.

My brother's wanted an apple airport extreme for their macbook's so that is our wireless router. Is their problems with this setup

 

Search for an updated driver designed for the Win7 64 bit RC.

Which one do you have?
http://www.atheros.com/pt/AR5007Bulletins.htm

 

I believe that this laptop uses the ar5007 chip which is not the same as the AR5007g or ar5007eg. According to their site http://www.atheros.cz/ , they only have the drivers for vista available. I do not know if it will work for Windows 7 but there is an updated driver for Vista 64 here.

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/...&dlc=en&cc=us&product=3998639&os=2100&lang=en

Fixes an issue where a notebook/laptop cannot reconnect to an Access Point(AP) when a non-broadcast SSID is used and the notebook/laptop is running on battery (DC) power.
Fixes an issue where an intermittent connection drop occurs with a Wireless Infrastructure Network connection, that is, Access Point Wireless Network connection.
Fixes an issue where a blank icon (just the icon frame with no picture) is displayed for the "CCX Diagnostic Utility" in the Control Panel and Start menu.

 

Vista Atheros Wireless Lan Driver Download from Compaq

From the Driver itself:

Listed in RED is your device ID, difference=A or B.
You can check Device Manager to see which one is loaded in your system.

If it is the AR5007G, a half mini card, sort of looks like a memory module, then it has the AR2417 chip.
If it is the AR5007EG, a full mini card, mPCIe, then it is chip AR2425.

It doesn't appear that Windows 7 drivers are available through Atheros either, apparently only offering support to direct chip/card purchasers. Meaning the only place you can get drivers is through Compaq/HP.
Just a month and a half away.

 

I just wanted to say thanks for the updated drivers and assistance guys.

The hardware ID was
PCI\VEN_168C&DEV_001C&SUBSYS_137A103C="Atheros AR5007 802.11b/g WiFi Adapter"

 

If things improve or not post back.
If not,lots of Bright people to help.

 

Sorry it took me so long to respond.

This driver update did fix the issue which is great, but I have a few questions on laptop's in general.

What is the fastest processor I can put in this CQ-60?
This baby already has 4 gigs of ram so I am good there!
I was thinking about adding a Q6600 mobile quad core somewhere down the road. It currently has T4200 dual core @2.0Ghz
The video card is a 4500M intel media accelerator.
How would I go about upgrading this baby for some gaming on a good resolution for 15.6" laptop display
My native res is... 1366x768

I normally run half life and painkiller gold in 1280x960

What I am really curious in testing is COD 4 Modern Warfare (I haven't installed it yet)