Have you installed the latest drivers for whichever wireless network adapter you have?  Have you tried adjusting the Power Management Settings to always provide full power?

 

Steve

Thanks for the input...I'll try your suggestions tonight.

No luck!  For the record I was told that my firmware on the router, Linksys's newest G router [WRT54G2], was the latest;but in fact, after a call to support, I found out that an update was available.  With latest firmware loaded and power management settings adjusted, I still continue with intermittent connectivity.

 

Diagnostics indicate that my computer and its WLAN card are fine.  When I bypass the router, by plugging straight in to the modem, my connection is solid and steady...so the fault must be with the router.  At Linksys's suggestion, I installed the router from scratch [hit the rest button and started anew].  A change in channel did not help as my wireless connection continues to go down time and time again.  This is the second new router in about a month's time so I'm 'kind of' discounting faulty units.  There still must be some internal setting/switch that prevents me from full uninterrupted connection.  Any other suggestions?

 

 

As a troubleshooting step, go into Device Manager, select your wireless card, right click, select properities, click on the Advanced tab, then try disabling Bluetooth Collaboration.  Does this help?

 

Steve

I followed your suggestion and [for the time being] the connection is holding up...I have my fingers crossed.

 

Curiously, following each recent disconnect, I can see the security enabled wireless network I created by clicking the icon in the icon tray followed by 'connect or disconnect' in the pop-up box, and can determine that the signal strength is excellent...but I was unable to restore without disconnecting and then reconnecting the power source to the router after a few seconds.  Basically the reconnection was automatic, i.e. not requiring me to make any elections and/or key strokes.

Also, now I see an unsecured Linksys wireless network that I must have inadvertently created.  How do I deactivate it? 

The Linksys connection could be an unsecured connection to your router or it could be another router in the neighborhood.   If it is another router in the neighborhood, it could be causeing the problem, especially if both routers are using their default SSID (i.e. Linksys) and are using the same channel.  To eliminate these possibilities, log into your router's configuration page from a wired ethernet connection and change the router's SSID to one you will recognize as being your own and change the channel to either 1 or 11.   Also, if you are using Windows to manage your wireless network connections (rather than the Dell Utility), open Network Connections, right click your wireless connection, select Properties, then click on the Wireless Networks tab.  Then select and Remove the wireless networks you don't want to connect to.

 

Steve

Steve:

When I set up my wireless network initially [and subsequently] I did rename the SSID and changed channel to 11.  I have gone through two routers, and to confirm [or reject] the router as my source of the problem, I'm borrowing a third as a test.  Likewise, I'll rename the wireless system and this time change channel to 1 to possibly avoid any interference with neighborhood systems.  I suspect as you suggest that the 'Linksys' wireless network I see on my display is a neighbor's network...and I'll follow your suggestion to remove any undesirable wireless networks.

 

Also, I did disable the Bluetooth Collaboration the other night, and I still got disconnected.  I wonder if Linksys may not be compatible with Vista regardless of the company's assurance and latest firmware.

 

Finally, if you know anything about network security, I'm currently hardwired to the modem yet my Micro Pen-cillin security software keeps indicating that I have 'unknown computers connected to my network' and identifies them by MAC address.  I didn't think this could happen as I'm not wireless.

/bob

 See if the following helps:

 

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/932134

 

Steve

So far I can't seem to hit on a permanent solution.  I've contacted Support three times, all with limited success; and yes I went to the suggested link with little luck.  For the record, as a last resort [again], I reset the router to factory defaults and made all appropriate changes and elections.  I've had one disconnect in the past week and a half occurring last Monday and have run uninterrupted since...I guess I should count myself lucky.  [After the disconnect I was quickly able to restore by unplugging AC supply for a few seconds.]  Frankly my confidence level is low as I've followed all the prescribed solutions and even had an IT expert at my house to scope out my setup.

 

I'm still looking for a 'magic bullet' to solve my problem; and would like to hear from someone who shared my problem and achieved permanent success. 

Steve, many thanks for your interest and support as you're the only one to have responded to my inquiry.

Just a thought but you could have an enviromental issue. Like a lot of networks in the area. Try running N etstumbler a little free program that will sniff all the networks in your area and give you a snapshot of what kind of signal strengh they are putting out.

Just an update...I've been running uninterrupted for 3 weeks.  I can't explain why or how, but I'm not complaining.  [I just hope I didn't jinx myself.]  Anyway, thanks for your input.  I'll come back if/when I get dropped again from the internet.