Question : Must use repair to connect to wifi

I have a Dell Inspiron 6400 laptop running XP Pro, SP2 and all available updates have been installed. No firewall is being used on this laptop.

I have a LinkSys wireless 4 port router at home (no encryption), and for 9 months now I have been able to turn on my laptop and it automatically connects to my router and I can surf the Internet.

2 days ago, I turned on the laptop and instead of connecting automatically like it always has, I got an error message saying it couldn't connect. I right clicked the icon in the sys tray, selected REPAIR, and BANG, I'm connected and surfing. For some unknown reason, now every time I turn on the laptop I hae to do a REPAIR to get connected. I check the wireless profile list and it shows my SSID as the only profile, and the words (automatic) are next to it.

Weird ting is, when I get the error message about it not connecting, I go to a command line and type IPCONFIG, but I am getting no IP address, so I type IPCONFIG/RENEW and it says it cant renew as the adpater is not working, yet when I do the REPAIR feature (which I think does the same thing as I did in the command line) it connects immediately.

Any idea WHY I now have to do the REPAIR every time I turn on the laptop?

thanks experts...much appreciate your help.
-Bob

Answer : Must use repair to connect to wifi

Open command prompt and execute these in the same order;

netsh int ip reset reset.log
netsh winsock reset

then reboot the machine.

See if that fixes the problem.

Cheers,
Rajesh