Netgear wireless router problems and solution
A while back I bought a Netgear MR814 wireless router for my girlfriend's house. However, I've always had problems holding a strong wireless connection. The back of the house doesn't get a very strong signal, and my connection would frequently drop. For a while I chalked the connection losses up to poor signal strength, but recently I found the following article on Netgear's support site:
http://kbserver.netgear.com/kb_web_files/n101299.asp
It recommends disabling 802.1x authentication in Windows XP, claiming that XP's support for 802.1x is buggy. Wherever the bugs lie, it seemed to do the trick. I can now hold a connection to the router consistently, even when the signal strength is on the low side. If you're having similar connectivity problems, give it a try.