I have what may be a similar problem, and my Google keywords brought me right to this thread. I'm now a new member of the community, so hi everybody. Maybe you know something about this problem.
Basically, it seems whenever I connect my Dell Inspiron 6000 with XP Home OS to a wi-fi router -- except for the Belkin I set-up at home -- I may get the connection for a few minutes or longer, but then I lose it unexpectedly, even when the signal strength is very good to excellent. This has happened at friends' houses, and at cafes that have a free unsecured wi-fi connection available. It's bugging me.
I've tried looking at and changing firewalls so that there no blockage from MS, Windows or Norton; none of that seemed to do anything to alleviate the problem. Each time I lose a connection, I'll either try Repair, or I'll look at the routers available list, and disconnect (if still connected) and/or connect again. No matter, it'll still lose the connection again, sooner or later.
I have also tried different unsecured routers when available and in range.
Btw, I've been ignoring LiveUpdates that I frequently get to install new updates. I don't like just saying, sure, go ahead, because I've seen in the past that at times these updates take "forever" to install. They can vary in size and the space they'll take up too. And I probably don't need or want some of these. A friend had given me a site to go to where I could check each update and see what it relates to before I give the go-ahead to install it. But I get Update alerts so often that I feel I don't have the time nor desire to read about each update. So I haven't been installing any.
Should I bite the bullet and let them go ahead and install, in the hopes that doing so may somehow solve the problem with the wi-fi?
Incidentally, a few months back or so, I had a problem where each time I pressed the button to power on the computer, it would turn on only for a few seconds, and then power off. Not even enough time to get a blue screen. So I sent it to Dell, and they of course did the most efficient thing that would also keep all my money in their hands, they swapped out the mother board and possibly the CPU rather than diagnosing the problem and telling me what it was. I'm just letting you know this, in case any of this has any bearing on what the problem could be or what you're thinking. But don't let TMI persuade you to think that my wi-fi problem is something it may not be.
Thanks.
