Extremely poor wifi signal with thomson TG585 v8

[#1]

Hi guys and girls 
Recently moved, had virginmedia cable before but have moved into a non-cable area and found plusnet...been with them for about a week now, everything is running fine except the router they provided (thomson TG585 v8) i am having alot of trouble with, the router is in the living room while my xbox 360 and blu-ray player is in the bedroom, at my old house, through wireless i connected both devices, now i find that with this router the xbox 360 see's just 1 bar signal strength and can't actually connect to the internet/xbox live, the blu-ray player can't even find it and all laptops in the house report a poor signal too.
I've tried all the different wireless channels, etc but alas still got the same issue.
Is this router very poor for wireless? or am i doing something horribly wrong ? i have tried moving it to different area's of the house with the same outcome.
If it's so poor for wifi, do i contact plusnet? i really don't think i should have to pay for another router really as the one they provide should work fine ?
If anyone could help that would be great.
Kind Regards

[#2]

Many things affect radio signals, particularly "line of sight" signals, which wifi is. As a former builder for many years and a radio instructor for the Civil Defence Corps, I know from experience that any metal in a building can block radio transmission. It may be something as simple as plasterboard with a foil backing or expanded metal lathing for plaster. To check if you are getting a good service, connect with an Ethernet (Cat5) cable. If your building has the afore mentioned problems then an answer to that is to connect via a Homeplug system.
Full information here:- http://www.faculty-x.net/compare%2085%20homeplugs.htm

[#3]

My mum lives in a fairly old house with thick walls, and the router has to be downstairs as that's where the master socket is. Unfortunately her computers are upstairs, in the room above, and the signal as a result is a little flaky.
I made one of these: http://www.labnol.org/software/increase-wifi-signal-strength-with-aluminum/8064/
It's helped a great deal and prevented the wireless from dropping out since, just make sure it's reflecting the signal towards your wireless receivers.
Hope that helps!

[#4]

Thank's for the replies.
@Ellis, The main computer is connected via ethernet and is working fine, i recieve no speed problems this way.
The bungalow is a rather new build (4 years, i think)
Looking around online i see this router has very poor wireless/flaky wireless reported by many users
I wish i had known this before i ordered as we have literally just moved and have no spare money, i am going to have to save money to buy a new router so can't use my xbox360/blu-ray wireless streaming until then, which kind of makes things useless for me, leaving me slightly annoyed to say the least.
@Matt, i tried what is done in the video without any luck at all, xbox360 picks it up with one bar with that but just refuses to connect, have tried multiple times now, maybe i am just doing it wrong

[#5]

How far is the router from the devices you're trying to connect?

[#6]

Hi Joanne,
The router is in the living room in the corner, although i have tried it in multiple areas within the room with no difference in signal quality.
I find this highly unacceptable as just going down the hallway to the main bedroom i only get 1 bar on the laptop too and web pages load slow.

[#7]

Hi kungfuzombiw,
Is it a stone built house? Have you used another router successfully in there. As you pointed out, there have been a couple of issues with this router's wireless but more to do with upload speed and some teething with apple devices. I don't recall seeing issues about signal strength. If we felt it was a router issue then we wouldn't hesitate to replace it, however I'm not 100% sure it is yet.
Jojo

[#8]

Hi
Yes it's a stone built house, i have borrowed a friends router for testing and get around 80% signal strength using wireless on the xbox360, lag free game last night
But back to my router now and no xbox live again, not happy at all to be honest, looking around it does seem to have issues with wireless signal etc.

[#9]

Hi kungfuzombiw,
Ok, I'll arrange for a replacement to be sent out and see how that goes.
Jojo

[#10]

Hi Jojo,
Would that be another TG585? I hope not as it obviously has issues