Trouble with real-time chat clients (wireless)

I recently moved into a new house (at college) and set up a wireless network. We bought a 40 dollar netgear router, because it was the cheapest. Wireless connectivity is pretty good, the download speeds are very quick and all of my real time internet widgets work along with my gmail notifier. however my realtime chat clients (AIM/AdiumX) lose a connection instantly upon logging on. Occassionally a restart will fix the issue which leads me to believe that its not my router that is having trouble but perhaps my Airport card. I am one room over from where the router is located, and both housemates whom i live with are a farther distnace from the router and are able to use their chat clients wtih no issue. Any thoughts or help would be great. thanks