Acquiring wireless network inconsistent

I have a DSL modem configured as the WAN server, a Netgear FVS 318 router configured as the LAN (DHCP) server, and a Netgear WG 602v4 access point as a DHCP client. I'm using WEP 64 bit security mode.  Even though the AP wireless signal strength is excellent, I have trouble acquiring a wireless connection most of the time.  Sometime the laptop says that there is no signal within range and a few minutes later will show it at full strength but can't acquire an address. Sometimes repairing the wireless connection will cause it to acquire but much less than 50% of the time. The laptop is a Fujitsu Lifebook with Windows XP Home edition with service pack 2 and the most current OS updates. The internal wireless adapter is the Intel Pro 2200BG and although the Intel network manager is installed I'm using the WZC manager. I assume by selecting WZC the Intel manager is disabled. The system did not have this problem a few months ago, but I have no clue as to what may have brought it on.  Trying to go back many months to do a restore would really be a shot in the dark. I recently tried winsockxpfix.exe but upon startup I get an error message that "Generic Host Process for WIN32 has encountered an error and has to close". To possibly complicate things further (or maybe not), on a recent trip I believe that I wasn't having much of a problem connecting to the hotel wireless network. Any ideas?