wireless adpater unstable

It may well be that the wireless router just isnt powerful enough, i have found some linksys wireless routers to be very disapointing before.  First thing to try if possible is to move the computer closer to the router. If you can, try it in the same room and see if it still drops out, I know moving it seems a hasle but it is the quickest and easyist way to test the strength of the router

I had the same problem a while ago and the solution for my problem was to get a bigger antenne for the adapter. It only cost me around 20 dollars...

Since then my connection went from bad to very good and it is very stable now. I hope this helps you out.

If you want any security, stop using wep, only use WPA. WEP is almost as secure as no encryption.

Change the channels on your router. Try 1, 3, 6, 9, 11, 13, and then use the one which is best for you. 2 Walls can also be quite a big obstacle. Wireless runs best with line of sight, and then you can get quite big distances. Also make sure you don't use the SSID assigned to the linksys router by the factory. Use your own.

Wireless really isn't ready for prime time as much as we'd like it to be. I had a wireless printer sitting less than 5 feet from my wireless accesspoint and every once in a while it would just stop talking to the AP. I'd have to reboot everything and then we'd be OK for a while. As has already been suggested, you might want to consider a "better" setup. We've been very happy with equipment from Proxim.  It's a little more expensive, but seems to work better than some of the cheaper stuff.

And, as has already been suggested, you really need to move away from WEP to WPA or even WPA2.

If i change to WPA then i cant enter a network key so I am confused, as the network key textbox disables.