Keep having to turn off/on cable & router

[blingbling2006]

Have a Linksys WRT54G router and a cable modem. My laptop is hooked up through the router. At least once or twice a day, I lose my internet connection and I only have two solutions: 1) turn off the modem and router, then turn on the modem, then turn on the router (2-3 minute process and I'm good to go again), or 2) forget the router and hook up my laptop directly to my modem.
What's going on?
Also, in case this info helps - even though my laptop has a wireless card, I'm hooking up directly to my router because I keep losing signal when I try to go wireless. Also, my home security system is hooked up through my router. Could that be causing interference? Any solutions?
Thanks.

[YeOldeStonecat]

Do you have the latest BIOS on your router?
Is your wireless secured? On..to ask another way...is there a chance you're running unsecured wireless and a neighbor is sapping your bandwidth?
Depending on which version wrt54g you have..there are 3rd party firmwares such as Hyper-WRT and DD-WRT..which give quite a performance and stability boost over stock Linksys firmware.
To help troubleshoot wireless, I do have a stickied thread in the wireless forum.

[blingbling2006]

It is secure. However, I do have several neighbors and my computer easily picks them up instead of mine. I'll look into one of those third-party firmwares. Also, my laptop is over 4 years old and dying, and the wireless card might be a bit too old.
Thanks.