New MacBook, slow internet caused by router

I have a new MacBook and the internet is extremely slow when i use the internet through the router (Linksys). When i connect through ethernet and change the service order, putting ethernet 1st followed by airport, the internet speed is through the roof. There is obviously a problem with the router itself or the connection between my mac and the router. What do i need to do to make my wireless speed equal to the ethernet speed?

What kind of router? What does it support? a/g/n? You need to provide more information.

Please tell me its not WRT54g. They're by far the worst routers (and most common) in the world.

Is the router slow with any wifi device on your network? Have you tried playing around with a different frequency?

Yep its the WRT54G V1. I have not tried another frequency nor anything else besides resetting it. Im not extremely knowledgeable when it comes to this type of stuff. Is there anything i can do to speed it up or is a new router what is needed? Thanks for the replies.

Get rid of it as soon as you can. I've had nothing but bad experiences with these over the years. Turns out they have a very small amount of ram that causes them to perform very poorly and reset themselves.

Pick up a belkin or d-link router if you can (or an apple one, rock solid but expensive). Other than that, open your web browser to 192.168.1.1 and take a look at the frequency settings.

Can you explain that in more detail? I have no clue what I am looking for or trying to do.

I don't have one of these routers anymore (obviously) so I don't remember where the setting is, but look under "wireless settings" or something like that.

Your looking for "channel" or frequency settings (should be a drop down menu). You may have something else around interfering with the wireless signal at the preset channel.

Typically it'll read channel 1-11, experiment with different channels and see if performance increases. You may not be able to get a signal at certain channels, in which case just plug the computer into the router via ethernet cable to change the channel again.