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I have an old Dell machine running XP SP3 using a Fry's Wireless N USB adapter.

At home and work I am using the same exact model of the Netgear N300 wireless router.

At work, the computer starts up, connects to the Wi-Fi, and stays connected the whole time.

At home, the computer starts up, does not automatically connect to the router (although sometimes it does), and has intermittent connectivity. Sometimes it works fine, other times the wi-fi connection to the router drops.

I have tried two different routers at home and still the same problem.

I am not sure what is happening since it is connecting to the exact same router at home and work so it is not a compatibility issue that I can think of.

Both routers are set to different SSID's, but they are not hidden and use the same encryption settings.

Any ideas?

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Do both routers have the same firmware version? Are you losing the actual signal connection to the router or just losing internet connectivity? – P.Brian.Mackey Oct 11 '11 at 17:53
Are you in an apartment? It could be that you're getting interference on the channel the router is on at home from another wireless router, or something else (appliances, cordless phones, etc.). 2.4 Ghz Wifi is very susceptible to interference from a lot of different sources. Here are some examples: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_interference_at_2.4_GHz – bwall Oct 11 '11 at 18:32
Both routers have the same firmware. The working scenario happens at my place of business where the signal stength is the worst < 50%. At home the computer and router are in the same room and it has 85% signal strength. It is actually losing the Wi-Fi connection, not just the internet connection. If I pink the router via a command prompt, I can see the timeouts occur and they correspond wit the Wi-Fi connection having an X through it in the system tray. After about 5 to 10 timeouts, the Wi-Fi connection reestablishes itself until it timeouts again a minute or two later. – fraXis Oct 11 '11 at 19:37
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