Wireless drops, and drops again

I'm having an infuriating problem that I don't even know how to talk about. Maybe it's my wireless router (a linksys bought 2 years ago), but my boyfriend (powerbook) is not having any problems, so I kinda doubt it.

Ever since we switched encryption types on our router, my internet drops and drops and drops. I still have full bars in the tool bar, just no functioning isp. This happens no matter what I'm doing, or not doing, online.

I can reconnect 85% of the time by running the diagnostic assistant through the network preference pane. I think that's the weirdest thing. Just running the diagnostic kicks the connection back into line. Sometimes I have to run it two or three times.

I have no problems when I bring my macbook to work, etc. This is a house problem.

As I've said, my boyfriend is having no connection problems on the same router.

Does anyone know what questions I should be asking, or what steps I should be taking, to figure out the solution here?

Thanks,

Sam

when you have full bars and its not running does your internet browser say "not connected to the internet"? or does it just say its loading but never does?

Hi, thanks for answering. I have full bars in the menu bar above, but the pages try to load for a while and then come up with a page saying I'm not connected.

When I run the diagnostic assistant through the network preference pane, it always says that the airport, airport settings, and network settings are fine - isp, internet, and server are all red. It asks the first few questions, then magically is connected again after it has me choose my network.

Which is weird, because according to everything else, that's the same network I'm connected to.

Thanks.

It could be any number of things that could be causing the drop outs.

I know back in 2008 people were having problems with the new macbooks randomly dropping I'm not sure if its still a problem but here is a site The MacBook's mysterious WiFi dropout problem is still unsolved | ZDNet that has some ways to fix it.

Also check for updates and make sure there is none for airport.

Microwaves, street lights, other wireless networks in the area etc, can cause interference with a network but I don't think that is your problem if you have another computer working perfectly fine.

I hope this helps if not let me know.

Try setting an ip manually.

Hi & thanks @ mgsfan18 - I will see which of those fixes I can try next weekend.

Does seem strange that everything was fine and perfect until we switched the encryption, but I think when we tried switching it back some bad other thing happened - I forget.