Netgear DG834G Router - Connecion Drops

A friend has a Netgear DG834G wirless router, and a Sony Vaio laptop
running XP Home with a WG111 USB network adapter, also has another
laptop wired to the router.

The problem is every so often usually after about an hour the laptop
just suddenly loses the wireless connection, the signal strength meter
on the laptop is one bar away from full strength before it
disconnects, then suddenly the connection drops altogether. You have
to restart the computer to get the connection back.

So far I have tried

Disabling Windows Wireless Zero Configuration and using Netgears Own
Software
Upgraded the WG111 drivers to the latest
Assigned a static IP address to the laptop

Lastly I borrowed the laptop and router and tried it at my house which
worked fine didnt drop the connection once. Which leads me to believe
that something giving off interference in my friends house or
surrounding area could be causing the connection to drop. I have told
them this but they seem conviced there is a problem with the router.

If the router worked fine at my house for 36 hours but intermittently
drops from a nearly full signal to nothing after about an hour, am a
right in thinking that it could be interferrence or am I overlooking
something.

Regards

Chris.Waite

"Chris Waite" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed) om...
>A friend has a Netgear DG834G wirless router, and a Sony Vaio laptop
> running XP Home with a WG111 USB network adapter, also has another
> laptop wired to the router.
>
> The problem is every so often usually after about an hour the laptop
> just suddenly loses the wireless connection, the signal strength meter
> on the laptop is one bar away from full strength before it
> disconnects, then suddenly the connection drops altogether. You have
> to restart the computer to get the connection back.
>
> So far I have tried
>
> Disabling Windows Wireless Zero Configuration and using Netgears Own
> Software
> Upgraded the WG111 drivers to the latest
> Assigned a static IP address to the laptop
>
> Lastly I borrowed the laptop and router and tried it at my house which
> worked fine didnt drop the connection once. Which leads me to believe
> that something giving off interference in my friends house or
> surrounding area could be causing the connection to drop. I have told
> them this but they seem conviced there is a problem with the router.
>
> If the router worked fine at my house for 36 hours but intermittently
> drops from a nearly full signal to nothing after about an hour, am a
> right in thinking that it could be interferrence or am I overlooking
> something.
>
> Regards
>
> Chris.Waite

it does sound like interference to me - on most of these routers, they are
running a light version of a unix type OS. Ive seen it before on my own
DG834G where the watchdog process for the wireless restarts itself after
being subjected to interference for a long time. Maybe they should have a
look around their home...saying that it could be the neighbours

Dropped connections come as std. feature with Netgear :-(,
some say they overheat, some that they can't cope with large downloads,
corrupt the routing table etc.
Switching to the latest firmware version (~17th !!!) may help, but changing
to different make may save your hair...
Regards,
Martin