Why do I have such poor/sporatic signal strength?

I have an iBook G4, and ever since I bought it i have had trouble with wireless connections. In my home, a small one bedroom apartment, I have and airport station. Connected to this is an external antenne. This is hooked up to a PC. My laptop has an airport extreme card. I have double checked and the card as well as the airport base station are installed correctly.
I am able to connect to the internet in my apartment. However, my wireless signal is always very weak. I am currently less than ten feet away from the base station and I am at less than half signal strength. Inside of my bedroom, approximatly twenty feet away from the base station I have little or no signal strength depending on what part of the room I am in. The signal strength varies constantly and does not allow me to connect to the internet.
My boyfriend has a PC laptop and is able to connect fine anywhere in the apartment. Also, he is able to detect several other wireless networks, where as I am only able to detect one.
When I am outside of my home and attempt to use hotspots, at school or coffee shops, I have little or no signal strength and am almost never able to connect to the internet for more than five minutes at a time, if at all.... All around me I always see PC users, as well as other Mac users serfing the internet without trouble.
How can I fix this? Should I buy a replacement airport extreme card? Is there any external USB devices that would help?
Thank you in advance for any help you are able to provide. I am desperate and will take any suggestions.

Hi Kat,
Welcome to the Discussions.
An improperly inserted antenna is the usual cause of weak signals. It takes considerable force to get it all the way in. This article illustrates a properly attached antenna.
John

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I've been curious about this topic for a while, but I haven't ever looked into this to any depth. I also posted this to stackoverflow but haven't gotten any solid responses so far:
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