Wireless routers

I was using a cheap TrendNet wireless G router I bought 6 years ago (IIRC it was practically free after rebate), since my newer Linksys G router died about a year ago, quite prematurely.

The TrendNet worked fine for all my computers, tablet, phone, Nintendo, BD player - except my desktop, which is against a wall adjacent to my neighbor. The desktop works most of the time; it shows good signal all the time, but sometimes I just can't get proper network access even with all bars

I tried upgrading my network card (since everything else I own works fine with the router). Tried different USB ones, and finally settled on an N300 PCI-E card, which worked for a long while, until some time ago it just started having issues again.

The router itself is aging too as it would sometimes need resetting. But still I get disconnects for my PC even when the tablet next to it is perfectly fine. Other times, the PC gets perfect connection just like everything else

I finally replaced the router with a new N300 router (these things are cheap nowadays!), and the PC has no problem since. Even faster than before obviously on N300.

Anyways this whole thing took me forever to fix and I finally am glad it's done (with a little investment). To this day I don't understand what happened to the old router and desktop combination. Anyone got any similar stories?

My girlfriend's having trouble connecting to the Internet on secured networks on her Windows 7 notebook. I did some probing online and found that this is apparently a common issue, and that apparently not all routers are natively supported in 7.

I'm using, and have been using, a Trendnet router for a long time...has worked flawlessly for me. I bought it for the same reasons...super cheap...almsot free.

You story is interesting, and I wonder if it would have been resolved if you would have moved your desktop? I wonder if the studs in the walls, wiring, or pipes might have been interferring with the signal, or perhaps reflecting it somehow...

Well I am quite sure it's not Windows, because I just upgraded 4 computers to Windows 8, and only one out of 4 has this problem. But they all have very different hardware, so it could be a Windows issue specific to some hardware???

I mentioned the location of the PC because I considered that to be a potential source of the problem. It's simply too much trouble for me to relocate it though. Anyways, the old router did have to be reset once in a while, so replacing it was not completely for this PC.