Wireless connection briefly drops, then will not grant default gateway or DNS server

Hello, I am having a somewhat bizarre, extremely frustrating issue. I can connect to the internet via wireless just fine, and everything will be hunky-dory for a while. After a while, however (this varies anywhere from a day to a week), there will be a small hiccup on the connection, and then something fails in the Acquiring Network Address stage. My computers will get an IP, but they will not get the default gateway or DNS server.

I say computers because this happens on both my PC and laptop. This issue does NOT, however, occur for anyone else in the household.

I have tried a plethora of fixes, from simple computer reboots to fiddling with all sorts of settings, and nothing works to reestablish the connection. My father has also tried fixing it, to no avail. I have to go and reset my router, which also interrupts TV service, because it is through AT&T U-Verse. Needless to say, this does not make other people in the household very happy, and I really shouldn't have to be resetting my router every couple of days like that.

My PC uses a Netgear WG111v3 adapter and is Windows XP. My laptop has on-board Wifi and is Windows XP Professional. I am not sure why I am the only person in the household that experiences this issue. Could certain programs like AIM be causing problems?

Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

 

Nobody?

 

I'm no computer expert, so I may not be able to help you, but I'll try.

But I think more information is needed.

What OS are on the other people's computers? Is it ONLY your computers that have the problem ever?
Can you log onto your router? Have you set the IP manually on your computer?
Can you ping other computers on the network when you lose internet?