No wireless connection with pc off

I have a Netgear WGR614 wireless router, a desktop running xp, Nintendo Wii, and a laptop running Vista. Everything runs fine, I can connect to each with everything running But as soon as I turn off the pc the laptop and the Wii are unable to access the internet. It has been working perfectly other than this problem. I really never noticed it before until we lost power and the desktop was still powered off and I tried to access the internet with my laptop. Is there something I did when I set all this up last year? I'm not very advanced in networking but I can carry out tasks if they are explained. I guess I need to bone up on some things.
Thanks

 

log into your router and go to the setup page, at the top there should be a dialog that says does your internet require a a login. is that box checked?

 

also can you connect to the router with the laptop, when the pc is off.

 

The box was checked yes and yes I can log into the router from the laptop with the desktop off. Funny thing is that since I logged into the router from the laptop I can now access the internet with the pc off. I still need to test the Wii now. I don't think that I changed anything when I logged onto the router from the pc. I'll have to check. Could it have been something as simple at that?

 

Update:

I now seem to have internet connection to the laptop and the Wii. The Wii is updating at the moment and I'm replying here without the pc on.Also it does not appear that I changed anything in the router config that I can see.

Is there something that could have caused this at first that would have changed when I logged in? I know that once in a while I have to restart the router to get any connection but then it works fine. i've had to do it 2 or 3 times in the last year.

 

Yes it could have been as simple as that however I have no idea why routers loose connection and some don't. when i have my netgear r614 I never lost connectivity however when I got the westel I may loose it 2 times a day. No reason that I could have ever figured out.
I wanted you to log into the router because that would eliminate one step and narrow the problem down, however logging in from the laptop seemed to give it the kick start it needed.
You may want to log in to the router again and back up your setting, that way if it happens again and for some reason you have to reboot the router you can re load your settings that work.

 

I'll make a backup right now. Thanks for your time and backup advice!