Wireless Internet Problems

Hello, I am not really sure where to post this question but I thought this may be the closest thing to my problem. I have used this website before with much success in removing malware from my computer so I thought I would try it again. I have a Toshiba Satellite (M45-S265) laptop and have had it for about three and a half years. Over the past year or so I have noticed real problems with the wireless internet that I am getting. I live with 60 other people who all seem to have on trouble picking it up (we even just doubled our bandwidth) so I am confident that the problem is my computer and not the wireless signal. Having said this I notice that sometimes I get a better connection in some areas of my house than others (but the good areas are not always in the same spot…) Over the past few months my computer has started to drop the internet more and more frequently to the point were I now loose connection once every 5 minutes or so. Sometimes after 30 seconds my computer will reconnect on its own but I usually have to repair the connection manually. I can't imagine that there is some kind of physical deterioration with my wireless card so I assume that the problem has something to do with software. I had to reinstall my drivers myself when I got a new hard drive a few 6 months ago but I assume I did this correctly because my wireless internet does work, just not well. I realize that this is pretty vague I just have no idea where to start with this problem. Like I said I don't know if its a virus or the driver or what?? Any suggestions would be helpful and I am not too computer savvy so please keep the instructions fairly descriptive. Thanks. Andrew

Right-click on My Computer - Select Properties - Hardware(tab)
Press - Device Manager

In the Device Manager panel, scroll down to Network Adapters
Double-click on the Network Adapters Icon to expand the information.

Your Network Adapter should be listed there.

Next:
Using an internet browser, navigate to this page: (just copy/paste the address into your address bar)
http://www.csd.toshiba.com/cgi-bin/tais/su…=1042090|PSM40U

Read through the available resources to see if there is a Driver listed for your Network Adapter.
Create a New Folder on your desktop or on C:\
Download the Driver to that Folder.
It will probably be "zipped", so use Winzip, PKunzip, or simply double-click on the file to allow XP to unzip and expand it inside of the New Folder.

Use this new drive to "Reinstall" Network Adapter Driver.

You can follow the Toshiba installation instructions, or simply "remove" your current Driver via Device Manager, then reboot your machine so that XP will automatically find the Network Adapter and install the new Driver.
You may need to select your New Folder as the location from which to install the Driver.

Keep us posted with your progress.

Best Regards

I think I'll move your Topic over to Networking in the Hardware Forums, so that you may get more specific assistance.

Edited by Doug
Hi asbrown My colleague John B reminds me that our Forum truncates (shortens-up) URL addresses when they exceed a certain length. Therefore, you would not have been able to copy/paste the address as I mentioned above.
Here is the "full" address for you to copy/paste into your browser address bar:

http://www.csd.toshiba.com/cgi-bin/tais/support/jsp/modelContent.jsp?ct=DL&os=&category=&moid=1042090&rpn=PSM40U&modelFilter=M45-S265&selCategory=3&selFamily=1073768663&selModel=1042090|PSM40U