Im using a laptop and when i shut the laptop for whatever strange reason my wireless connection speed becomes impaired because i use an external monitor most of the time and dont need the laptop screen ide like to figure this out heres what ive tried and info
with the laptop open here are my speeds

laptop open = 19.03 mb/s down 3.38 mb/s up with a 85 ms ping
http://www.speedtest.net/result/2356120828.png

laptop closed = 0.65 mb/s down 0.63 mb/s up with a 99 ms ping
http://www.speedtest.net/result/2356108386.png

even if i do an ftp transfer on my local network i only get speeds of 1 0 kb/s

Its a Toshiba Satellite P875-s7310 running Debian Wheezy ive tried different kernels it makes no difference currently using 3.6.7
Network controller: Intel Corporation Centrino Wireless-N 2200 (rev c4)
im using the iwiwifi drivers they are correct and the latest ones there are no options in Bios that have anything to do with power/suspending and ive tried restarting networking with lid closed that also makes no difference so im stumped any help would be greatly appreciated thanks

The wireless antenna in a laptop is often in the lid, so closing the lid is likely to affect the line of sight to the wifi router (not to mention polarization issues).

You can test this by holding the laptop vertical (with the lid still closed), and see if this varies the bitrate you are getting.