agreed. it definately has some heat issues but i actually have a box fan blowing on it, i'll try standing it up as you suggested tho. anything's worth a shot. WPA2 with AES is what i was initially using as well, along with every other combination i could think of and its just not authenticating. finds the signal great, i dunno.
i'm weary about upgrading to the next firmware 1.12, i think it mentioned that you can't downgrade to 1.02 once you upgrade ? i'm worried i'll be stuck in a worse situation then, reports seem overall optimistic so far i think at least on dslreports.com http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r20917368-DGL4500-Firmware-112-Released