more dropouts!

Hi everyone.

I have a wireless ad-hoc network set up using a WG311(PCI) and a WG511
(PCMCIA) NIC, both Netgear. The 311 computer (Desktop PC) is running
Windows XP, while the other one (Laptop) is running Win2k. I had no
problems for about a month since I got the NICs. But just a few days
ago,I re-installed XP on the desktop computer (left the filesystem
intact) and since then I'm constantly getting connection dropouts, every
2-10 mins.
The dropouts are happening only when the connection is idle, otherwise I
can transfer any amount of data between the computers. I tried changing
the drivers for both NICs (supplied version or downloaded,newer
version),disabling wireless auto configuration, changing connection
speeds, but nothing happened.
I know that it is a common issue, but searching through newsgroups I
didnt find a solution to the problem.
The only thing that remains to do is to install SP1 on XP, which was
installed before reinstalling XP. But will this do any good? Or could it
be something else that's screwing things up? I could really use some
suggestions here!

Thanks for your time!

OK, I sacrificed some sleeping yesterday night but I think I made some
progress. Here's the story:

1. PC with WinXP and Netgear WG311
2. Laptop with Win2k and Netgear WG511

Connected between them in ad-hoc.

No. 1 was constantly dropping the connection(2-10 min interval).
No. 2 didn't have any problems.

a.I installed SP1 in winXP and the connection was dropping less
frequently (10-15 min). What's more, i could ping no.2 and use
filesharing even though the connection icon in systray showed that it
was down.
b.Installing the latest WG311 drivers (1.3) over SP1 seems to solve the
problem. The connection was stable for about an hour. Then I went to
sleep
c. Tried using the Netgear utility to manage the connection but it got
screwed up again. So I reverted to using windows( Wireless Zero Config)
and it seems fine up to now.

Just for info.

btw, does anyone have experience with the wireless patch in WinXP
(KB826942)? I read that it may cause dropouts. Would it be wise to
install it over SP1?