[historian]

I have Vista on my desk top as does my daughter on her laptop. While my wife has XP on her laptop.They get their internet via wireless from our Netgear router.
The problem is,and this has only happened this last week or so,that the internet drops out.I /we are with AOL. I rang them today and asked if they could do something.They got me to do verious things on line and they checked it at their end. One suggestion was that I get a new filter that the phone line plugs into.Or take the router and plug it into the primary phone socket,which is some way away,and test it there. Will a new filter help. They said that these filters need to be changed every six months but the ones we have must be over 2-3 years old. Any advice would be helpful.
Many thanks
historian

[muckshifter]

Yes, a new filter, £1.99 if you look hard enough, may well help, no idea about any time limit, but crap happens ... been there, seen it, done it.

[Abarbarian]

Do you have the AOL software on your pc ? If so you may find that taking it of and setting up your router to accept AOL direct may solve a lot of problems, it will speed up your browsing aswell.

[floppybootstomp]

Filters need to be replaced every six months?

That is so much total crap, a filter is just a bunch of passive electronic components under no stress whatsoever. the stress of electronic components within audio amplifiers is high and audio amplifiers often last decades without going wrong.

Having said that it wouldn't hurt to try a new one, things DO go wrong and they're cheap.

Abarbarian's suggestion is a good one, just using AOL to connect and using a different browser may help.

Plugging the router into the primary socket may help but imo it's doubtful.

My assessment would be - and I could be totally wrong - that the router may be going faulty.

My experience of wireless connections has not been good with two wireless routers dropping out signals over a distance of les than 4 metres and only going through one wall.

A router wireless signal amplifier/booster may help.

Sorry I can't be more precise about the problem, it could be a number of things but I will repeat the advice about changing filters every six months is total bovine manure.