internet connection ?

[kdk121392]

so recentley my internet on my laptop has been acting up. it would be connected to a router, then after it went into sleep mode and i woke it up, the internet connection would be gone. i would try to connect it to a router, but it would say 'no current available routers' or something like that. i would diagnose the problem and sometimes it would say 'hardware not up to date, reinstall and then click next' and others it would say 'local area connection (netowrk cable unplugged)' and sometimes if i restarted it a few times the internet would be fine again, also i recently installed windows vista security pack 1 and it installed fine. please dont say unplug the router and plug it back in because i tried that and it took to long to reconnect my home computer back to the internet, and my laptop still has no connection.
also, i have a compaq presario f500 laptop
maybe a year old, and a netgear router, but i often connect to a different router in my neighborhood, because of signal strength

[Shani]

If you have your lap top far away from your router, then the internet connection can be weaker than normal. My computer does it too. I don't have a solution for that, i just restart mine. Try moving your laptop closer to the router.

[A F]

Is it possible that the neighborhood signal you are picking up may be part of the problem? For ex you connect to G's router. G then does something to their router connects or drops connection,plugs it in, raises the security, has some device interfering with signal,has 2 or more machines in net at once, has a wireless phone that conflicts with the wireless computer network all those things can have a negative effect on the signal available to you to grab from G. Phones and other computers in your own home can do that too so can other interferences sometimes even a garage door in your neighborhood tho the old garage door thing is hopefully very rare these days. Also you may not be the only one in your neighborhood tapping (ie looking for a signal other than from a service to which you subscribe and someone else may tap in and preempt you if they are closer to the signal or have stronger reception. Try it for a day or two with just your own signal and see if it behaves any better. Of course another tapper nay be tapping into your home signal too unless it is security protected.

Did you have this problem before Vista?