wireless internet problems

[acidca]

My computer is really old. It's a 850 mhz pentium 3 with 128 RAM and an 8 gig hard drive. I got a dual-band NetGear wireless card for it so that I could pick up wireless networks and use this laptop as a portable poker-playing station.

When I first got the card, I was able to pick up networks pretty reasonably. I would get a perfect (95%+ connection) if I was in the same room as a router, 60-75% in the next room, and 30-50% in the same house. I could generally play use the internet on the first floor of my mother's house, and the Linksys Hub thing is on the 3rd floor.

Now, however, I cannot get a reasonable connection more than 2 yards from a router. If I am in the next room, forget it. In order to play poker without getting disconnected all the time, I have to put my laptop RIGHT next to a router. I was trying to play a minute ago with the router 5 feet behind me and my connection was 27%, not even strong enough to tolerably use 2+2.

I have no idea why it's working so badly now, and have no idea how I can fix it. Does anyone have any ideas?

Much Appreciated,
Acidca

[C McGuinness]

It sounds like an antenna is disconnected/broken on the router or the wireless card. Definitely some sort of hardware issue.

Do you have another Wifi capable computer you can check out the router with?

[BiPolar_Nut]

Completely agree...antennae connection on either the wifi card or the router, most likely on the laptop card since it prolly had more abuse being installed/removed/bumped.