Please help with my wireless con..

Until last week, I have had no problems, the following just happened all of a sudden, and now its bothering me daily:

I have a D-Link DIR-655 router, where my main computer connects via a wire, and my laptop wirelessly.

My laptop is a Dell Studio 17 with Windows Vista Home Premium, my main computer is running Win7 Ultimate (but other then a LAN connection, they have nothing to do with eachother or the internet connection).

Anyhow, for a year now I have been connecting no problem with great speed wirelessly.

But last week, I just can't connect with any consistency. Here is what happens: When I start the computer, I get a local only connection, meaning I am on the LAN, but no internet. When I do a diagnostic, it tells me everything is ok except it cannot find a gateway (failed).

The only way I can get the internet now, is to try to connect, and while its connecting, restart the computer, and when it comes back, it actually connects to the internet, and stays connected sometimes for a few minutes, sometimes for hours, but eventually it kicks it out again and becomes a local only connection.

Not only that, but even when I do connect using the "trick" above, if I do a diagnostic, it still says the gateway failed, and then kicks me out of the internet connection.

It never connects to the internet simply by starting it up or restarting it, only local connection.

I really need this fixed before I lose my mind and format everything and put Win7 Ultimate on there, but I have a feeling this will not fix it, I'm at my wits end.

Please help and ask for any further info you need.

Thank you.

I have updated the firmware, thanks for the idea. I had the old 1.02 2006 firmware installed. After configuring everything from scratch, I have yet to lose connection on my laptop, so it seems, at least for now, that the problem is fixed. I'm crossing my fingers!