is this range normal?

I have just purchased an SMC 2804WBR wireless router and SMC 2862W USB wireless adaptor. What range should I expect? Currently, I am lucky to get more than 15 metres which is inside an office building with only wooden partition walls and in fact only one petition war between the computer running the adapter and the access point. I also have a Fujitsu life book notebook computer which is also fitted with wireless LAN and I am able to get considerably better distance but certainly not more than 30 metres. Is this normal? Is there some tweaking I should be doing on the router or something like that?

Yes you are correct in your supposition that the notebook has inbuilt wireless no doubt as you say , with the antenna in the lid. Presumably the simplest way to increase the range is to buy some sort of a repeater. Do you have any recommendations?

I've never used a repeater. I would suggest a reflector and an external antenna, in that order. On the freeantennas site, Mike even suggests that you use a reflector before buying an antenna to get some indication of how much an antenna might help, and compare the roughly 10dBi gain to the gain of commercial antennas beforee buying the one you need.