MacBook :: Wireless Doesn't Always Work?

I am pretty displeased with Mac. I made the switch over last summer when Apple was having the big sale for college students. I bought a Macbook with 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo and 2 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM. It wasn't the cheapest white one, but it wasn't the expensive black one either. Reason one why I was displeased: the CD drive sounded like a motor boat when I tried burning CDs. After having that fixed, yet another problem arose that persists to this day: For some reason, my wireless doesn't work here at home. It works (almost) perfectly at school, but here at home, I have to be about 3 inches away from the freaking router for it to function properly. When I'm no more than 10 feet away, the signal begins to drop. Even when I have 3 bars of connection showing, my internet won't work at all. Coincidentally, when i click on the wireless button up at the top of the screen, it begins to function again (most of the time). It is really annoying. This is probably the last Mac I will ever buy. At home, I have a Linksys wireless router, Model WRT54GR.