Wireless drops for extended periods

[Alone]

We've got a combination of wired and wireless networks in our house. Two computers are wired, two laptops are wireless.

One of the wireless laptops will often lose the connection, and it could take minutes or hours before it will reconnect. The odd part is our network will still show up as available with at least two bars, but it'll just sit at "acquiring IP" or something of that sort. This is the only computer in the house with that problem, so I've assumed it's not a problem with the modem or router. This, of course, may not be true, but that's the best I can figure.

I've gone through the configurations of the laptop and its network settings, but nothing has helped. I've tried removing the wireless card and put it back in, hoping for some "reconfiguration", but that hasn't helped.

Could it be a problem with the card, or is there another way to "diagnose" this problem? I'd rather not track down a replacement card before I can figure out if that's the problem.

The laptop is an older one.

HP Compaq Presario V2000.

The card is a HP Broadcom 54g MaxPerformance 802.11g.

From what my parents tell me, this has only been happening for the last month or so.

Any ideas?

 

[mpilchfamily]

Sounds like a bad card to me.

 

[Alone]

Alright, then I shall replace the card. While I'm doing this...should I get the same card? Or is there a slightly better card that's compatible?

 

[greenbean]

Might also be outdated firmware on the card or old drivers in your OS. Bad cards usually stay bad unless their badness is environmentally triggered; i.e. card overheats inside a poorly ventilated laptop and stops working, but then *mysteriously* works next time you boot up because the card hasn't been warmed up yet.

 

[lxskllr]

You can get USB adapters pretty cheap. It's less portable, but they seem to work better in my experience.

 

[phdchristmas]

I was living in a house with 802.11g for 2 years, everytime a guest with a Nokia cellphone or AT&T provider would recieve/make a text/call, the internet traffic would come to a screeching halt. Many of those times, completely disconnect my connection to the wireless router.

By anychance is there someone in your house hold that has a new phone and spends lots of time texting/talking on his or her cellphone?