Wall Street Journal talks to home Wi-Fi users who can't seem to get the range they need even on small homes: It's a growing problem, and well explored in this article, that home users are finding that Wi-Fi's limited range can't cover an entire ranch-style home, much less a big apartment--or one with thick walls.
The article mentions several solutions, all of which involve additional access points or devices that promise more range. It misses just one of my favorite solutions: HomePlug. HomePlug lets you run 14 Mbps over home electrical wiring, and even has a Wi-Fi access point version to extend a network into areas that a signal otherwise wouldn't reach.