I've got an 802.11g wireless network set up at home using a 2wire 3800HGV-B modem/router and USB 802.11 adapters provided by my ISP (AT&T U-verse).

Now the connection works fine for a while, but occasionally it will drop out for no apparent reason. Windows will still say I am connected to the network, but nothing will work. I can't even ping the router. This can happen any time, but usually only after I've been connected for a few hours. It seems to happen more frequently when I'm making lots of connections (like running BitTorrent).

It will resolve itself in five minutes or less if left alone, or I can do a "Repair Connection" in Windows and that will fix it.

This doesn't happen on my other computer, which is connected to the router via ethernet.

Does anyone have an idea of what the problem could be, and how to resolve it? I've searched Google, but to no avail.

Your description sounds eerily like overheated hardware, specifically your 802.11 adapter, but it could be anything in the network chain (USB host controller chip, wireless router, etc)

That's just a stab-in-the-dark guess though, and I don't know if there's a good test for it (i.e. if the adapter's enclosure was poorly designed, there's not much you can do to keep it from overheating). But it's a place to start.

Alternatively, the adapter itself could be just be crap (i.e. wasn't designed or tested to handle any serious traffic, which is essentially the same as the overheating problem but less fixable).