How many do you have, and does it happen when only the laptop is connected (and not the other devices)? I'm not saying it isn't the driver. It might very well be.

Everything I have seen that would involve Windows concerns either WIndows XP SP1 (Or 2 or 3...SP3 being the most frequently mentioned)or Power Management with your particular Wireless Card.  I also came across quite a few ( alot, really) of threads that just talked down your particular wireless card. It seems to be a common issue with that model card and the router was different in most of the threads.

There may still be an off chance it is interference. That's why I would try to duplicate it at another location (private and/or public). I found this, which I wasn't aware of...

"See if any of the possible 2.4GHz sources apply:
<http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi#Interference>
The problem is that the typical site survey tool won't show all the
networks thanks to the moronic security suggestion of not broadcasting
the SSID. However, Kismet under Linux will show these and clients.

However, you still won't see everything. The new and allegedly
improved MIMO systems can be set to be invisible and still trash much
of the 2.4GHz band. Fortunately, the default setup is "Mixed Mode"
which should be visible.""

2 XP machines, one of them is the notebook we are discussing, 1 Windows 7 machine, 1 Nintendo Wii, 1 Sony PSP.

Any good solutions found?

Is your router set-up to allow multiple devices? ANd if so how many? Sounds stupid, I know, but try it with all of the others off and make sure your phones are not connected to the network. Everytime I put my Droid on Wifi, it bumped everyone else in the house off of Wifi. It took me a couple weeks to figure out it was the Droid. I had to expand my allowed devices to make it stop. (If you have that Wii set for internet , specifically connected to your home network with a password and all- unplug it. Mine still gets damn emails even when I have it turned off)

I'm looking for a fix. No one seems to have beat it, though. Most common thing I see is that this is common with WIndows XP and your particular wireless card. They blame the Service Packs, mostly SP3, the driver updates for the card, and interference. Have not found anyone who has actually fixed it yet, except for the guy who downloaded the card update from Dell when the Intel update would not fix the issue.

Common theme is interference and from what I have seen, there really is no way to see ALL the networks around you. A few switched from WPA to WEP and got 'some' improvement (Stronger ping - 70%) and not dropping as frequently or as much. I'll keep looking til YRAG shows up.

**EDIT - Check with your provider on who is using what channel. That;s how I found out about that little issue. There were wifi's I could NOT see on my PC when I did a search. They will know for sure if anyone is on your channel.

One final note..I went through something like this on my step-sons PC about a year ago. YRAG helped me and we couldn't find the answer. Then I stumbled across someone who had the same issue. I actually had to download an 'exe that tricked the wireless card into thinking my router was another brand and channel (n,g,d or whatever it had to be convinced of) and it worked. I will have to see if I can find that. I thought I saved it but I have to many damn bookmarks. 

Look at this. HERE

If I read it right.. IF...there is a Broadcom 54g driver you may need. (This article lists your model Gateway) The issue was resolved. It is looking more and more like a WindowsXP Service PAck issue from what I can see. I hope something in all of this helps.

***Your provider can (at least I know TW can) tell you how many devices your router is set to allow AND reset it if needed...providing you received your router from them. If not, I don't know if they will help you at all.

I'm pretty sure it is. I'll check it out though.

Well I wasn't aware a Wii could get email. Be that as it may it only connects at night to stream movies for my daughter. We keep at least two computers off at that time as we don't have enough bandwidth to satisfy serving all computers and Netflix going at once.

I think I'll avoid installing SP3. Right now the connection is stable. I went into the control panel and set the card for wifi B only and turned off power management. i also set it to channel 8, as the router is on channel 8. I'm not going to hold my breath but all is well so far.

Thanks for looking into this for me.

That would not help. I pulled out the card last night. It's made by Intel, not Broadcom.

The router belongs to me so my provider wouldn't know anything about it.

Then you must have it connected to your network.

You need to check the number of allowed devices. It can be very specific. You can limit it to 2 or 5 or 10 or any number you want but once the number is input that is ALL it will allow until you change it. This will also help in any 'unwanted' devices riding on your router.

I looked at so much crap but one thing that jumped out was switching both to 11 (I think I recall my IT saying 11 also I just don't remember why...security maybe) and trying WEP and WPA to see which worked better. If it's working on 8, screw it.

Hope you got it working. Sorry if I side tracked you with anything I put out here.

I've read through the above post's, we know it's not hardware and sounds like software. I have an old router myself and I know it can only support 5 or 6devices tops. And it doesn't drop when using Linux. I'm at a loss myself but just in case you have ghost machines on your router here's a link to see who and what is on your network.....

My HP LAPTOP wifi kept dropping due to overheating.

I cleaned it up, started to behave well..

Do you use bittorrent software. My router drops and need restart if I do this and dont limit number of connections.

No I don't use bittorrent software.

Is the laptop still staying connected?

Somehow, after messing with some of the adapter's properties, it is.

Don't you just hate it when you fix something as irritating as that and you're not sure exactly how or why you were able to fix it? That kind of shit drives me nutz.