Netgear ADSL problems

[powerjohn]

I have a small home network which consists of a desktop PC and a laptop, which are connected through a Netgear DG834GT router (108 Mbps) which is in the same bedroom as the desktop. (There is also an oldish PC in the garage connecting with an 11Mbps wireless dongle; this seems to be slow but happy all the time.) Originally this setup worked perfectly without needing any cabling, but in the past year the router went down, so I replaced it with another (actually a Sky version with flashed firmware). This also failed, and so has a brand-new Netgear.
The symptoms are that although the desktop can link to the router and so to the Net, most of the time the laptop won't pick up an IP address from downstairs, even though the signal can be "excellent", and the router has to be rebooted. Sometimes I get a message about "another wireless utility is trying to connect", and so the profiles get disabled. Other times it just sits there and sulks.
Can anyone throw any light on this? It's driving my wife nuts (the laptop is hers).

[admin]

You could try to change the wireless channels if you can on that wireless box, or remove the config and reset up again, have you got any WEP security etc ? check that it is tied down to only allow connections from that MAC address if your not sure how to do this will explain.

Thanks