Windows 7: Losing internet connection and/or WLAN

In the last month or so, I've begun having intermittent loss of connection within my home WLAN. Wireless is HP Laptop w/ 7 HP and wired is Dell desktop w/7 HP. Even with both machines awake, they can't "see" each other. This network has been up for years, and has been fine on 7 since my upgrade in Oct. I've discovered now that if I go to the Dell and check the network settings, it says its a 'home' network, but when i click through to the change screen, the 'public' box seems highlighted. If I then click on "home", essentially reassigning the network type, everything reconnects and the network visibility is restored.

Also, perhaps a separate issue, I've been losing internet connection frequently. This happened rarely in the past when a simple modem restart sufficed. But now the only thing that works is disconnecting the actual coax from the modem as well as power cycling. Could this be related to Windows in any way? The modem is a common Motorola surfboard only about 3-4 years old....

Any thoughts?

An easy first step is to try changing channels on your wireless. If everything has been fine up until now and you haven't made any changes, it could be just plain old interference.

If you can take a look and see what channels are being used around you that would help. Most people let the wireless router use the defaults. If you've done that as well there's probably a boatload of people around you on the same channel and that can and will cause the kind of problem you have.

If that doesn't work we can dig a bit deeper.

thanks, i'll give it a try when i get home from the office tonight... I know there are a lot of wireless networks around me in the neighborhood. But how could a router channel affect a wired connection so much that i would have to refresh my connection to the ISP by disconnecting the coax to get going again?

Normally it wouldn't. You may have two problems but right now we don't really know for sure. What's the saying? Networks are like onions?

For the first problem where the Windows 7 machines can't see each other try this.
This is another Windows 7 bug apparently so you need to delate a rogue file to fix it.

The fix for this problem seems to be Deleting the file idstore.sst under C:\windows\serviceProfiles\LocalService\AppData\Roaming\PeerNetworking

Once everything at Peer Networking Grouping is running you may also need to do this...

Start the Task Manager
Click on the service Tab
Find the "HomeGroupProvider"
and then stop the service.
You will need to restart after doing this.

For the dropped connection problem, that can be a million different things apparently, it can be anything from drivers and router problelms to anti virus's or third party firewall's. I will start with the most common problem first.

Try using a different channel as RedBird suggested. If that doesn't change things read on.

First make sure that your network adaptor is not set to turn off in your power options console.

Do you have anything from apple installed on your system like quick time or itunes or Adobe software? If so it is possible for apples bonjour service to cause connection drop outs. If you have bonjour installed try this.
Computer > Manage > Services and Applications > Services => find the bonjour service (sometimes is shown as long numbers), shutdown service, and set to Disabled.

ok, so maybe this is a problem? when i try these steps:

The fix for this problem seems to be Deleting the file idstore.sst under C:\windows\serviceProfiles\LocalService\AppData\Roaming\PeerNetworking

Once everything at Peer Networking Grouping is running you may also need to do this...

Start the Task Manager
Click on the service Tab
Find the "HomeGroupProvider"
and then stop the service.
You will need to restart after doing this.

There is no AppData directory....within the LocalService directory on the path you listed are Desktop, Documents, Downloads, Favorites, Links, Music, Pictures, Saved Games and Videos... so I'm thinking that's a problem?

yeah....ignore that last reply....had some folders hidden... heh heh...