Flaky wireless connection issue

Hello all,

I tried searching for solutions to my problem, but didn't come up with anything specific and I wasn't exactly sure how to word my query. I am trying to diagnose a problem with the wireless connection on my sister's laptop.

First, the specs: laptop is an HP Pavilion DV6000; OS is Vista; wireless router is a Linksys WRT54GS2, and the network card is Broadcom 802.11 b/g WLAN.

It also says there is an "Nvidia nForce Networking Controller" when I go into the "Device Manager--> Network Adapters" tab. Not sure what functions this performs.

The host computer that the router is connected to is a desktop sitting only about 5' away from the laptop, and the router is about 6' away, with nothing obvious blocking the signal.

Here is the problem: after the laptop starts up, is reactivated after sleeping, or sits idle for some time, she cannot bring up a webpage. She keeps getting a "server not found" message, so it seems the connection has dropped. However, when we place the mouse's pointer on the network icon on the taskbar, it shows the wireless connection to the host computer as being active, but it also says "identifying..." next to the network name. Trying to go to any website results in the same "server not found" message, and we have to manually disconnect and reconnect to the network in order to get a good connection back.

The router is new. I just replaced an old wireless router with this one on 1/13/10. I checked the settings on the router and the laptop's connection specs and they all appear to be correct... the connection does work, but my sister constantly needs to disconnect and reconnect before she can get on the Web. Not sure where to go next with this one, as I'm not a networking guru and don't work much with Windows systems these days.

Thanks for any and all help,

I suspect hat is happening is that it is taking a long time to obtain an IP address from the router. Setting a static IP address can sometimes help, as can turning on UPnP if your router has it (most new ones do).

I would try enabling UPnP fist and see what that does, you'll find it somewhere in the router settings.

Thanks, I will try enabling the UPnP first!