Laptop bootup does not always connect wireless

I have a laptop with XP home on it. When booting up, it will sometimes instantly recognize my wireless network and connect. Other times it doesn't. When it doesn't, I have to disable/enable my wireless connection a few times until it eventually connects.

I have no 2.4GHz phones, router is centrally located, and I have validated there is not a drop in service when this happens (using my hardwired computer). Router used is a Netgear 54g. My other laptops with XP Pro and Vista don't seem to have this random issue. Is there any

Any idea what's causing this random behavior? Is there any way to force windows to only use a single AP since this laptop never really leaves the house? Would a static IP solve this?

 

TCP/IP is set up after the wireless connection is created, and therefore IP is much further up the stack than the underlying wireless protocols. Therefore, I very much doubt that setting a static IP address will achieve anything.

I expect the best place to work at fixing this is with drivers/windows wireless management.

If you are using the wireless system manufacturer's software to manage the wireless connection, then the best option is probably to remove it and use the in-built Windows system. We'd need to know the details of your wireless system to give detailed instructions as to how to remove this software. However, have a look at TonyT's post in this thread for a good example as to how it can be done.