A week or so ago I purchased a Linksys Wireless-G PCI Adapter for my desktop. I connected through the Windows Wireless Network Connection Connection icon in the bottom right hand corner of the screen. Every 10 minutes I was being knocked off the network. My friend reminded me that I hadn't installed the Linksys utility yet. I did that a couple days ago.

Now I have to connect through that utility only, which is fine. (Windows says it can not configure the wireless network as I have designated another program to do it).

The problem has gotten better, but it still persists. Every hour or so, it drops the network. But you can see via Linksys that the signal is there. Further, I have a new lap top running Vista and it never disconnects.

When you try to connect through Linksys, it says that it can not connect to the access point. The only way to get back on is to right click the Windows Wireless Network Connection Connection icon and choose 'Repair'. A minute later, I'm back on.

Does anyone have any idea what is going on and what I need to do to stop this from happening?

I had a problem just like that and it was solved by doing a firmware upgrade on the access point. In this case there was a compatibility problem between the access point (a wireless router) and certain wireless G cards running Vista.

Before you make any drastic changes, make sure that your Internet connection is actually working. I have Ipstar and that modem is hooked directly to my Linksys router. My laptop shows an "excellent" signal but it is stalled. Unplugging the modem from the router and hooking it direct to my desktop doesn't work either. Ipstar REALLY stinks lately. Router or no router the connection simply stops working but still shows a good signal.

Well he said he never has this problem on the Vista laptop so I guess we can rule out the internet connection as the source of the problem.

I recommend updating the wireless router firmware and also the Linksys drivers for the PCI card - I am sure you can download new drivers from the linksys website. Make sure you have the latest ones.

Try changing the channel of the accesspoint. Had similar problems in the office and this one did the trick for me!

Thanks for the replies. Since the laptop never drops, we can rule out the internet. I will try to download the latest drivers for the wireless card. As for the firmware for the router, can someone explain a little more? The router is owned by the condo here and I don't quite understand what needs to be done, which means they will likely have no clue.

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Okay, I found a good explanation here:

http://compnetworking.about.com/od/wifihom...wareupgrade.htm

I just hope the resident internet technician here can get the job done.

Well, I was already using the latest wireless card driver. I asked the IT guy here about the firmware issue. He said they don't have a router, they have a server, so the firmware has nothing to do with it.

Any other ideas why it would drop the network and reconnect only after clicking 'repair'. Keep in mind that the lap top sitting here never disconnects...

Does your connection drop out when the laptop is off? It could still be a compatibility problem with the laptop and Vista causing too much traffic.

When you go to connect to your access point, do you see other access points? Can you tell what channels they are on? Other routers on the same channel nearby can cause problems.

Are you near a microwave oven? Are you near a cordless telephone? These devices operate on the same spectrum, and will cause interference with the WiFi.

Signal strength just tells how much power the radio has; it doesn't tell you anything about the noise level. I used to have a good tool for seeing that information, but don't remember what it was called; you could try netstumbler, but not sure what information it provides.

The "access point" (might not be a router in IT parlance) has firmware; there might be a server that controls access to the network, or authentication, but that is likely not an issue.