GhostX,

I'd try this tweak first.

Go to device manager(right click my computer, left click properties, left click hardware, left click device manager). Click on Network and then right click on your wireless adapter, left click properties, power management. Uncheck the box, allow computer to turn off this device to save power.

Your Xp, if it has SP2 or SP3, will only connect with WPA-PSK(TKIP) Security (Personal) I use these Recommended Wireless Router Settings on my wireless G router.

The a/b/g mode broadcasts on 2.4gh band. The wireless N router broadcasts on 5.8gh band. My friend has one network called DaveN and the other network called DaveG, so he know what network he's connecting to.

Rick

Thanks very much for the reply, Rick.

I already had that power management option unchecked,  so that is not the problem.

Your sentence about how the wireless-N router broadcasts on 5.5Gb high band does not appear to be the case for me.  In the "2.4GHz Wireless Settings" window of my router settings, I have the option of setting it on "Wireless-N Only" (which is where I have it set).  It's therefore broadcasting on the 2.4 GHz band on wireless-N.  I know that the 802.11n standard does support 2.4GHz as an option.  I did at one time have it set  to broadcast at 5 GHz, but my connection is much faster and has better coverage area in my house on 2.4GHz for some reason (I would have expected the opposite).  So I have the 5GHz band disabled.

Your comment that my XP (which is indeed sp3) will only connect with WPA-PSK(TKIP) Personal also does not appear to be the case, as I have my router set on WPA2-Personal (not WPA), and it is connecting at that setting (most of the time, anyway).  That's also how I have my wireless card's settings set on the laptop.

I looked over your Recommended Wireless Router Settings, and have the following comments about some of what you suggested there:

(1) I am a little wary of changing my security from WPA2 to WPA, because WPA is an outdated standard and is less secure--unless anybody has any specific reason to believe that this setting is my problem.

(2) I don't have the option to change my channel to 1, 6, or 11, because I have my "Channel Width" option set on "Auto," which grays out the channel selector drop-down menu.  I would have to manually set my channel width at either 20MHz or 40MHz (which I would be happy to try if anybody feels that it would help) to allow me to set a channel.

(3) I do have MAC Address Filtering turned on, because I only have one wireless device that ever connects to this network (my laptop), and I wanted the extra layer of security.  I do have it set properly for my laptop, which I know must be the case or I'd never be able to connect.

If anybody has a specific reason to believe that any of my settings is causing my intermittent connection problem, I'd be willing to try changing it, but don't really want to go randomly changing all of my settings at once to less-secure states.  Because my problem is so intermittent, it would be too difficult to narrow down which setting is the problem if I change too many of them all at once.  I'd rather change then one-at-a-time starting with whichever one people think might be the problem.  That's assuming that it even is a settings problem, rather than a hardware problem with my wireless card or router.

Again, my confusion is about why my computer connects to the wireless network 90% of the time.  What could be going on during only those 10% of the times that it fails to connect?

GhostX,

If you're connecting to WPA2, then keep those settings. I use WPA-PSK(TKIP) Security because of the wirless printer and those USB wireless adapters. They connect with no problems to the type of security I'm using.

I looked at my wireless adapters settings in the device manager. My 802.11n Channel Width for band 2.4 is          20MH ONLY

I recommend swithcing from Auto to Channel 11.

If your computer is using an Intel Driver, try this.

Intel® Driver Update Utility for Intel® wireless adapters

Sometimes using more updated drivers seems to help. I did have an issue with my old Dell Inspiron B130 with losing connectios. It had to do with the version of Intel ProSet Wireless. I went to an older version and the connection problems went away. You can try letting Windows manage your connections, also.

Rick

Thanks again for the advice, Rick.

I ran the Intel Driver Update Utility, which did find an updated driver for my wireless card.  I installed it, which then ran Intel's wireless connection utility instead of my previous Windows connection management.  The Intel application would not connect to my network--it found my network being broadcast, but wouldn't connect to it (similar to the problem I occasionally have with the Windows management).  It recommended that I run the built-in Intel troubleshooter, but I couldn't get that to run. 

I tried rebooting my laptop and the router, but just couldn't get it to connect no matter what I tried.  So I then disabled the Intel application and returned wireless connection management back to Windows, and it immediately connected as normal.  That has left me wondering if whatever problem the Intel application was experiencing is somehow related to the problems that I occasionally have with Windows connection management, but it doesn't explain why Windows management is able to connect, whereas Intel's management won't.  It's too bad, because that Intel application looks like a very handy on with some good features, and I'd love to be able to use it.

I did change my channel width to 20MHz (instead of "Auto") on my router, which then allowed me to change my channel to 11, as you recommended.  It may be a couple of weeks before I'll know if that made any difference, since my problem is so intermittent, but I'll give that a try.

Thanks again for your help, and I still welcome any comments from anybody as to what might be going on with my connection, or with that Intel utility.