T1B

I have a wireless terminal that is probably 30 feet from the router. the signal is always low, and it drops out a lot. A have a second wireless 30 feet in the opposite direction and it always has a good signal. Both hve wireless linksys cards, one is a dsktop (low signal) one is a laptop (good signal)

can a metal closet door affect the signal?

What can I do to boost the low signal? are there products out there that would do it, or do I have to move terminals / router?

can a metal closet door affect the signal?

Radar is basically radio signals bouncing off metal then returning. Not knowing your actual setup I'd still say the metal door is probably shielding your computer from the router. Moving your desk top computer, or router to another area, or possibly simply opening the door and testing it would verify that "educated guess", and also your wireless linksys card in that computer.

Metal can always get in the way of your wireless. So can the number of walls, any wireless telephones or even microwaves. Considering that in your average home, your wireless signal should go a good 50 feet or more, and up to 400 feet outside, I'd say distance is not your main problem.

Are both machines on the same level? If not then that could be an issue. Laptops generally have two small antennas built into the wireless cards. 802.11 antennas are polarized in a certain direction. When they point up to the sky, the signal goes out horizontally to the ground so you should get good reception on the same level. If you point the antenna parallel to the ground, you'll get good reception above and below the Access Point. The same goes with the client end. PCMCIA cards generally have two antennas and one is polarized to receive better reception from above and bellow and the other is set to receive good reception from the same level. As a result if your router is on the first floor and your PC is on the 2nd floor, you might need to change which way your antenna points on the PC. It also helps to aim one antenna on the Access point to be horizontal and one to be vertical. Again, this only helps if you have multiple levels.
What happens if you take your laptop over to your PC? Does it still get good reception? Obviously the number of walls will make a big difference. Also having something close by that sends out radio waves on the 2.4Ghz band can also get in the way and degrade your reception. As I said, Microwaves and wireless phones tend to be big causes at home. If the problem is the # of walls or maybe just one wall, then you may just have to move things around or run an ethernet cable. If the problem is a Microwave, Wireless Phone or even a competing network from your neighbor, try a different channel for your wireless network. By default they usually are set to 6. This is where sniffing out the neighborhood can be of some help. But if you don't want to do that then maybe try something like Channel 1 - 4.
I should note that these are only issues on 802.11G and B wireless networks. 802.11A networks in the 5.2Ghz bandwidth tend to have less of these problems. If memory serves, you got a router that supports all 3. If you are on G right now, try swithing to A. If you have all 3 enabled, try disabling B at the very least or just drop 2 and use A or G, which ever one will work better. I think A is a little better inside, while B is slightly better outside due to the wave lenghts of the 2.5 and 5.2 Ghz wave characteristics.

I'm on G right now. I recall having trouble getting that set up. My router does support A, how do I go about resetting it?

Oh and the computer with the problem has a PCMCIA cards. The laptop just has the slot card, and the lap is doing fine.

Thanks for the other advice. That makes sense.

If your Cards support A as well, then just go into the router configuration with the browser and under the wireless you can enable A if its disabled.