wireless link frequently disconnects ....

[WayneD]

I have a belkin 802.11b wireless access point connected to a wired desktop via a hub. The access point services a laptop and another wireless desktop. I have the laptop equiped with a belkin 802.11b PCMCIA wireless card and the desktop with a belkin wireless PCI 802.11g (backwards compatible) adapter.

The laptop has been wireless for two years and operates perfectly. The wireless desktop has just this week been converted to wireless however, is not working perfectly.
Frequently the desktop wireless connection is dropped requiring I reconnect which appears to work ok however, is quite annoying. Once the connection is connected it works great but this connection dropping and reconnection is becoming quite an agrivating process. This NEVER happens on the laptop. Can anyone shed some light on this for me ..... is this normal?????

[WayneD]

Found this in another post....

"I had this problem. All I had to do to solve it was to uncheck "Enable IEEE 802.1x authentication for this network" under the "Authentication" tab of the Local Area Connection Properties. If I remember correctly, I read somewhere on the Netgear website that this problem should be resolved in the next service pack release for WinXP."

I unchecked everything in the Local Area Connection Properties/Authentication screen re: enable IEEE 802.1 and the connection quit disconnecting. I then checked enable IEEE but unchecked "Authenticate as computer when computer information is available" however, this caused the disconnecting to begin again.

IS the IEEE authentication important? What purpose does it serve? I have 128 bit encryption as well as MAC filtering enabled and the connection firewalled so without the enabling of IEEE am I really running a security risk???