Are you living in a neighborhood with lots of WLAN activity ? You can check this if you do search for WLANs on your computer and find lots of them listed. It does not really matter if they use an encryption like WPA, WPA2 or WEP, as long as they are listed there they might interfere with your own WLAN channel which can be the cause for bad download rates and sudden disconnects.
Most WLANs use the same default channel when they ship from factory. This is most of the time channel 11 and sometimes channel 6. Most users keep those default channels which can lead to the mentioned WLAN problems if your neighbors use that same channel.
I would therefor change that default channel if you are experiencing difficulties like disconnects in your WLAN. The default channel needs to be changed in the WLAN router only, the computer will automatically pick the signal up without modification. I’m going to show you how a change would look in my WLAN router.
My U.S. Robotics Wireless MAXg router can be accessed locally with the IP 192.168.2.1. You need to consult the manual of the router to find out how you can access the router interface. The main interface loads after supplying the username and password.
The Wireless tab at the top lets the user change the wireless settings. I had to click on advanced settings to change the default channel from 11 to 3. You should try to raise or reduce the channel by 3-5 steps if possible. This can be an impossible task if you have dozens of WLANs in your neighborhood; My advise would be to start with the low channel numbers and work your way up until you find a channel that works nicely.
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It is really frustating to read uneducated suggestions like this. There are 3 channels that are proper to use in North America; 1, 6, and 11. The WLAN standard 802.11 B/G/N requires 25 Mhz of channel separation to avoid interference. Channels are spaced 5 Mhz apart. Thus, when you suggest somebody to use channel 3, they actually cause interference across two of the accepted and standardized channels for North America, 1 and 6. You also start getting interference from those two standard channels.
Please educate yourself before giving advice. I live in a WLAN saturated environment, and suggestions like yours only makes matters worse for all of us. Wireless router manufacturers should explain this to their customers, or limit their devices to the standard and accepted channels.
http://compnetworking.about.com/od/wifihomenetworking/qt/wifichannel.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_WLAN_channels