Vista Laptop, Random Net Connection?

Maybe someone who knows what they're talking about could shed some light on this?

My Dads laptops internet connection keeps failing, it will connect to the router but not the internet. His Tower comp. has no problems, it will connect while the laptop says 'connected but with limited access' or something, his laptop has Vista while Tower has XP. Tbh restarting (pulling power supply cable out and in) router fixes but there must be an easier way than that? So far we've tried 3 different wireless thingies as well as the one it shipped with, the randomness never fails? Any thoughts?

Ps. The laptop sometimes connects but it's pretty much a coin toss everytime it boots

Could it be a problem with different wireless standards? I was using a new N card on my 6 year old G router and it constantly dissconnected at random intervals. Not sure though.

Don't think so, it connects to the router and connection is great but the limited activity thing won't let it go on the net. It's like something is blocking access (yes we have checked firewalls etc.). Mine and brothers laptops both connected, my psp also you name it, it'll connect, it's just the laptop that has problems, it's so annoying.

Gonna try putting Windows 7 on it, think it's a Dell, maybe someone screwed up while installing or turned on the microwave during :P

Thanks for the reply, I'll let you know how it goes

I have a friend who had wireless related issues with his dell laptop similar to the ones you have. When he asked the tech at my university, the tech said that some dell laptops had a conflict with the auto update function in vista. If your updates are set to install automatically, it could install the wrong driver for some wireless cards (don't remember which ones). At least that was the tech's answer. He deactivated the auto updates and installed the driver from the wireless card's manufacturer's website and the problem seems to be fixed.

Could be that the laptop is trying to get an ip address that already assigned to something else. Does it connect ok when theres nothing else connected to the router? Not sure where it is in Vista but you need to go to Network Connections and you should see the wireless network connection. Right click on it and select properties. In the list you will see Internet Protocol, select it then click properties and make sure its set to obtain an ip address automatically.

Thanks guys, I ran the recovery thing to take it back to factory settings and it's running fine now (touch wood).