It could be the driver on the laptop. I'd see if there is any differences with other wireless devices. For me, the stock firmware never connects at more than 144 Mbps, though it should connect at 300 Mbps. My range is ok, from the ground floor of my house it will have a 11g signal strength to the bedroom 20m away upstairs @ 44%, which is ok.However, the TPLink firmware is generally poor, there are defects in some areas that have been there for over two years. For example, DST page does not work for southern hemisphere cities and has not worked for over two years and the same defect is in the 1043ND router as well.

I normally use Gargoyle firmware on the router which typically works much better but Gargoyle/OpenWRT currently has a defect that it cannot connect to xBox 360 and some HP printers wirelessly. My previous router was the NetGear WNDR3700V2 which was ok with Gargoyle firmware on it but the stock firmware that NetGear provides is limited. However, the 3700v2 only connects at 130 Mbps on 2.4GHz but 300Mhz on 5GHz however, the range is limited. My 4300 5GHz range is also very limited, max distance is no more than 7m with walls, as physics says, the higher the frequency the higher the throughput but the lower the range.

I bought this router because I read a lot positive of reviews and now I read a completely different story (stories) in this forum :( I'll try to get my money back as I don't want to mess around with firmware from gargoyle and what not.