Netgear DGN1000 wireless poor range and stability?

I have been using a Netgear DGN1000 for a few months and the wireless range seems to be pretty poor compared to my previous routers - DGN834 and a Thompson TG585v7. In general, wireless range is rubbish, and even worse, wireless stability is very bad, especially when using iplayer or some other service that uses reasonable bandwidth.

On the upside, my DSL line connection with Be has been almost rock solid with DGN100 (this is the reason I changed the router - line drop outs with TG585v7).

So, it seems I can have good DSL stability (DGN1000) or excellent wireless (TG585v7), but not both

Two questions:
1) anyone else experience poor (or good) wireless performance with DGN1000?
2) any recommendations for a good performance router - line stability and wireless range / stability?

you might find there are others on the same channel
use inSSIDer to look who else is around and the channel they are on

Connect the 585 by LAN to the Netgear and disable the 585 DHCP. Use it as a WAP. Either disable the Netgear wireless or use a long ethernet cable and have both going, on different channels with the same SSID, to improve coverage even more.