Sounds like you have a weak signal for some reason. Sometimes just moving the pc a few inches can improve the signal. Wifi signals bounce around different directions from hitting mostly metal objects inbetween the wifi router and the pc - like water heaters, wires in walls, etc. I guess guys in jai cells .. surrounded by all those bars - makes life difficult for wifi too :)

Sometimes a neighbors signal on some of the channels can overwhelm your signal also.

I use the old free version if metageeks insider to set my wifi to the best channel. I'm amazed at how many wifi signals surround my house. That program will let you see all the surrounding wifi signals and their channels and signal strengths so you can possibly try a channel with least interference.

Channels 1, 6, and 11 are the preferred usa channels, try to stick with one of those as main choice. .

Here is a link that might be useful: http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/inssider.html

If your first computer connects to Wifi ok and without periodic problems, I wouldn't think that signal interference is a likely cause of the problem.

How large is the home? How far away from the router is the spot where connections are spotty? How does it work when the PC is in the same room as the router?

The dongle always needs to be completely pushed into the USB socket. I have to say that I stopped trying to use USB wifi dongles many years ago, at the time I couldn't find one that worked well consistently.

"I have to say that I stopped trying to use USB wifi dongles many years ago, at the time I couldn't find one that worked well consistently."

They still don't as far as know.

fwiw

My experiences with the plug in usb WiFi adapters, they all seem to have much lower receive and send power than the internal types. They struggle with distance I think is their main problem for some uses.

Here Im using a little tiny Trendnet/Realek usb mini adapter, sticks out maybe 1/2 inch. Has 100mw rx 200mw tx, with no antenna, and that's = very weak. It works flawlessly though in my use, even in full energy savings mode - I bought it to experiment with two channels and it matches my Trendnet wifi/dsl-modem/router, and only cost ten bucks delivered..

Actually it worked out so perfect for here that I use it full time as its weakness in send/receive signal is such that it doesn't see but just one neighbor, where as if I actuate my internal wifi it sees a dozen ssid's at any given moment .

It is mostly line of sight here to the router here which I keep that router set at 12% transmit power to actually appreciate in my mind I have as fast as possible network speeds without bothering neighbors signals.
My iverizon dsl 7.1mb is way under the 120 to 150mb windows says is available - so do I need it :)
But if I were streaming to a tv or moving backup files around.. maybe 2 channels then would really be appreciated and actually useful.

I don't think I've had a single dropout since I uninstalled the TrendNet install and let Microsoft automatically discover new hardware and install with their version of the realtek wifi driver. Windows has all the necessary built in programming for managing it.

I use a D-Link USB adapter, and have used it for 3 diff PC's it is way over on the other side of my home and works great, I assume you have installed it with the DVD? no need to move the PC however you may want to move the adapter if you can for a stronger signal? I have 4 PC's online on my home network.