What are the best WiFi settings for my situation?

First, ensure that the router is off the floor and away from walls and metal objects (such as metal file cabinets).

As regarding channels: Just try them all one-by-one at a time when the neighbors are probably at home.

Some more ideas are to be found in the article Top 10 Wi-Fi Boosts, Tweaks and Apps.

Idea number 2 is probably the best, to enhance your router's wireless antenna with aluminum foil : If your router is near an outside wall, half of the wireless signals will be sent outside your home, so much of your router's power is wasted.

There are many ideas on how to do that, going from this idea, further explained here, that results in:

And up to the very simple :

I don't think you can use Channel 13, its made for Europe or something. Here's what you want to do:

Make a list on paper of all the networks, excluding the ones that are very weak.

Your basic channels are 1,6,11. Other channels overlap with each other.

If someone else uses channel 4, round it up to 6. Channel 3, round down to 1, and so on. Count all the numbers 1,6,11 people, then pick the lowest one, and choose that. This isn't scientific, I made it up just now.

To test reliability, run: ping -t or ping -t www.google.com

move around and see how much it varies in milliseconds.

Encryption type and other settings usually don't matter for speed, use WPA2-AES personal. You can also try decreasing the speed of the network, for example instead of 54mbps you can lower it to 36mbps but I don't know if that really helps stability.