router gradually slows connection speed down?

hey all, im almost clueless when it comes to configuring IP's or whatever has to be done, i even had trouble establishing a connection between pc and router, took me about 5 days to figure out the right order to turn the hardware on for it to work, so please bare with me, i really want to get this to work.

Firstly I'll show a pic of my exact set up, I use a wireless broadband modem 512 plan, my PC runs windows XP home and connects via ethernet cable to router, laptop runs XP Pro and connects wireless to the router.
basically looks like this, and thats the exact router model from D-link;



I got all this working together but one problem i cant figure out... the connection speed will vary from 120Kb/s down to as low as 1bps, but usually hangs around 205-900bps and will occasionally jump higher when i look up a website, but gradually the connection deteriorates and the pages wont even load...
Also MSN messenger will randomly disconnect, and trying to use another program like soulseek at the same time as messenger just will not happen, either msn or soulseek will shutdown first, the downloads for soulseek seem to be expected but will pause for no reason and i'd have to disconnect and reconnect.
I've looked up many sites to see what my problem is but i cant seem to find anything, maybe cos i've been working at this all day... i have tried to much stuff, configuring w/out security, turning off windows firewall etc..
I hope someone can help me, if more info is needed, please ask for it!
thanks.

 

so you are broadcasting from the modem to then router wirelessly then putting the desktop to the router through a cable? which machine is that msn and soulseek problems occuring? how far away is the modem from the router? how many walls are between them?

 

hey eric06, the modem and router are connected via ethernet cable, the wireless on the router is only for my laptop, number of walls dont matter, the problem occurs either way.
My router is situated next to my PC, and the modem is about 6 metres away because thats where i can get the best reception

Both machines have the msn & soulseek problem.

 

i'm running basically the same thing as you, except no wireless laptop yet. and i also have msn disconnecting for no reason, i just reset my cable modem and router and it fixes it for a couple of days. just unplug your router, then unplug you cable modem, wait a few minutes, then plug the router back in, then the modem, that should fix it. let me know how it works.