Why is my computer losing wifi signal?

I’m running a Toshiba Satellite with Vista. I will be online (wirelessly) when suddenly my connection goes to local only, then nothing. I click on ‘search for networks’ and nothing shows up. Usually there are about ten networks close to me, of varying degrees of strength/reception.

My computer sees none of them, and my router seems fine- as Hubbs isn’t having this issue.

So I think the problem is in the settings on my computer. It’s set to find DNS/etc automatically. I went, checked the settings- then two minutes later went to look at them again and they had changed. Now it was set to a specific IP and the options I had clicked were changed as well.

My drivers are all up-to-date as well.

My wifi is turned on, everything seems normal- until the computer has a blip and decides to not look at any networks. I hooked the laptop to a hard line and it was fine for about five minutes- then it too went blank.

Anyone have any ideas/thoughts/tricks? This is all confusing the hell out of me.