Try moving your router a bit up or down or left or right . . Its amazing sometimes how a minor change can affect the signal wifi strength. Also if your computer wifi has a movable antenna ... move it around and hope for a better signal strength. Also, stock antennas usually have whats called GAIN of 2.5db,,, you could buy a little directional antenna with higher gain for the router and/or computer to boost the signal a tad or a bunch. Directional antenna's at both ends is about as good as it gets. What is your signal strength now ? Here is a link that might be useful: Some antenna idea's.

If budget is an issue it might be beneficial to troubleshoot the problem rather than taking a shotgun approach and replacing all the equipment. As for hardware, there is a difference and there are sites that regularly review routers and adapters for speed. The N wireless standard is faster than the G standard but only in a pure N environment (unless you buy a expensive router). Otherwise everything drops to the lowest speed on the network. Wired is also faster than wireless, so if possible use a wired connection.

I was able to flush the dns on both the xp and vista laptops. But I still can't connect either laptop wirelessly to the "fmaily room" network (which is still unsecured). I cannot access the Nat,spi or firewall soI don't know if that's the problem. Both laptops show a strong signal (full bars) to the family room network - but don't connect. They do connect via wired connection (does this mean I have so far created a network switch). On both laptops I selected "family room" as the preferred network to connect to. But both connected to my Lynn network (from the opposite corner of the house - with only a weak signal). On the Vista laptop it says Windows cannot connect to "family room" - and when asked to connect to family room, it said "Windows association failed due to an unknown reason." When I selected "diagnose and repair, it said Windows did not find any problems with your Internet connection." Then I tried one further thing. I saw on the Vista laptop that it still listed the family room network as having WPA2 security - so i changed what the laptop had for listed for family room network to reflect no current security settings. Then I tried to connect again. It wouldn't connect. Then I clicked repair/diagnose - and it said "this network is marked as a "hidden" network and is either not in the range of this computer or the wireless settings saved on this computer do not match the settings of the network." It is in range of the network - 3 feet away and receiving a full strong signal. So perhaps the network settings do not match the router or access point (although I'm not sure where to look to check this since I think I set it all up to match). The other thing is says is "if you own or set up this network, reset your wireless router or access point and try connecting again." Should I try this? Does it mean unplugging SMC access point, linksys router and modem - waiting and replugging them in? If so, in what order? Or does this mean resetting the SMC completely and starting from scratch? So now what? Jane - I realize that Mikie's the guy - and I very much appreciate his help. Those links helped me get clearer on definitions, but don't really get specific enough to address these set up complications. Thank you. Lynn.

some links for reference Sharing your printer wirelessly Share Files and Printers between Windows 7 and XP this is what got mine working properly, I found the info on the windows 7 forums (Jimbo45) after I did this it worked great. Just be sure to put the name of your actual machines and names in there rather than what he is using as an example. "to share Printers attached to XP computers with either X-64 or X-32 versions of Windows 7 is SIMPLE. These instructions are for the Printer attached to the XP machine (but works in reverse as well). ("Stand alone" Network printers can be done slightly similarly BTW). assume the computers are call XPMACHINE and W7MACHINE. 1) Ensure Printer on XP machine is shared - assume it's called SHAREDPRINTER. 2) On the Network Browsing on your Windows 7 machine ensure you can "See" the Printer share. Now on the Windows 7 machine do the following (doesn't matter if it's X-86 or x-64). 3) Control Panel==> add LOCAL (Yes LOCAL) printer. I know it's on a Network but hold your horses -- what we are actually doing is "Poodlefaking" the Windows 7 machine into thinking it's running the printer. 4) Create NEW port==>Local port 5) Portname is \\XPMACHINE\SHAREDPRINTER 6) Now Windows 7 will load a driver and you'll be able to print on the XP machine. Simple (For a "Network stand alone printer") at 4) chose TCPIP port and at 5) enter the IP address. If the printer is on the Windows 7 machine and you want to print on the XP machine then do the same instructions on the XP machine -- port name in this case will be \\W7MACHINE\SHAREDPRINTER Here is a link that might be useful: windows 7 forum