Networking issues only on certain networks

[jeckel20003]

I've been having problems with my wireless networking on my laptop but it only happens on certain networks. I have a Linksys router and my laptop works great on it. My friend has a similar Linksys router and most of the time my laptop won't connect to it. It starts to but shortly after says it can't connect to it. When it does connect, the internet is very slow. I set up my friends router and it is set up just like mine so there shouldn't be any issues with that. I've also disabled all firewall/antivirus programs on my laptop and tried connecting to the network and it does the same thing. I have issues with the wireless network at my school as well. I don't know what make of equipment they use but I will connect to their network and sometimes quite randomly after I have been connected for a while my computer will BSOD. Sometimes it will go days without doing it and sometimes it will do it multiple times within an hour. I've tried uninstalling the wireless adapter through the device manager and letting Windows reinstall it, I've tried updating the driver, and I've tried updating my BIOS. Nothing seems to work. Any ideas?

 

[piattj]

"similar" Linksys router... Please confirm:
1. SAME model of router
2. SAME level of firmware
3. SAME set up (wireless, security, firewall etc settings)
4. Your friend has no problems connecting wirelessly to his OWN router

Also, confirm that using your laptop at home with YOUR Linksys router is trouble-free ("works great" - does that mean NOP probs, or few probs...)

Does a wired connection to your friend's router work OK? If so, it's a wireless issue, but the questions above will allow for more focused troubleshooting.

Does your laptop ever BSOD away from school?

Cheers

 

[piattj]

Importantly... has your laptop EVER worked OK with your pal's router?

 

[jeckel20003]

I don't know right off hand what model routers they are but I'm sure they're not the exact same model. They were both bought within the last year and a half. They are both b/g/n as well. I also don't know what firmware they are both running at the moment. But I did set them both up so they should have the same setup as far as security and everything like that. When I use my laptop with my Linksys router, I don't have any problems at all. I have used a wired connection to my friend's Linksys and I didn't have any problems. I think my laptop might have BSOD once when I wasn't at school but it's been happening at school for almost a year now. My laptop has worked with my friend's Linksys without any problems before. It just seems to not work every once in a while. It's been not working for the last few days though. I had ZoneAlarm free firewall installed but uninstalled it and installed Comodo free firewall yesterday to see if that would make a difference but so far that doesn't seem to have fixed it. But my friend's computer (which is running ZoneAlarm) and my phone both connect to my friend's Linksys and don't have any problems.