trrouble with laptop seeing wifi router broadcast

Hi I hope someone can help with my frustration. After a fault in my laptop harddrive it was replaced by Acer (E630). This may not be to do with my problem - I had the same problem occassionally before hard drive crash, but now it's just hit and miss, mainly miss..
I have a billion 6200nxl wifi router. (recently bought an antenna to get better signal strength as it kept dropping out {house is surrounded by trees)but had good connection strength). I can connect to this router with my desktop, using a tplink usb adapter (half the house away), but my laptop does not see the same network. This is mostly permanent, but occassionally see it and all is fine. (I do only plug the router in to power when I need to use it.) I can however connect via an ethernet cable from my laptop and get the internet,using this router. What I want is to place the usb wifi router centrally in the house and use the internet via wifi (as my daybed is located in a room that has poor signal strength (used to drop out constantly - before buying router)

My laptop can however see and join a wifi network ,I had a friend set, up with my desktop (this router does not have usb modem capabilities).It's down the back of the house.

I am disabled and spend 16 to 24 hours a day in bed. I am trying to decide to stay with my current isp (desktop adsl,which has a wifi router attached to it {modem is not wifi)network dodo 1gb a month adsl for $25) or go to another isp that provides better value (virgin using virgin unlocked)E1762 usb modem[currently used with wifi router and the one giving me problems} - 4gb a month fo $30 or optus 4 gb a month for $30 I also have an unlocked E1762 optus usb modem.

Can any body help.

Yours in frustration Tad. (ps I am a relatively novice computer user, with adventure, but not the skills to match)

Hi, It's been pointed out to me (By a friend)that my previous post mayy be confusing. I have tried to put the sequence of events and what i AM TRYING TO ACCOMPLISH BELOW:

I own a desktop which was not wireless capable. I have adsl from dodo – 1 gb per month for $25.
Being disabled and having trouble sitting I purchased a laptop with wireless N cappabilities.
I then purchased a wireless router,to use for both the desktop (modem connected to router and router connected to desktop via lan cable) and to wirelessly attach to my laptop. Original wireless router is not 3g but is N wireless. This uses channel 6 (set to automatic).

I wanted to top up my 1gb monthly download and be able to connect to the internet outside of my house, so purchased a virgin 3g usb modem, also a friend gave me an optus 3g usb modem (both unlocked).
I had connection issues with the 3g usb modem so bought an antenna.

At this point,requiring more than 1gb per month, I started considering whether to stay with dodo adsl or move to virgin or optus using a 3g modem. To this end I did 2 things: I purchased the second router, a 3g router (billion 6200nxl) ((which uses channels 1 +5, it's set to automatic ,(that's what metageeg insider says)) and I purchased a tplink network adapter (I think it's called this -it makes the destop wireless capable).
I then should be able to connect wirelessly with the desktpp wireless router, and/or the 3g router with both my desktop and my laptop, and also take the 3g usb modem outside of my house for internet connection. My aim is to eventually just use one of these routers.

If I am to decide to go the 3g router route I want to make sure it consistently connects and the download speed is adequate.

To achieve this, I want and expect both my desktop and laptop to be able to see the 3g router broadcasting. This is where the problem is.
My destop (windows xp) using the tplink network adapter can see the 3g router with good signal strength. The laptop (windows 7 home premium) can see the wireless desktop fine, but only sees the 3g router occassionally.

I have seen anouther networking – wireless forum on whirlpool, where a number of people are having similar problems with this same 3g router. The solution at the end of the forum was to update the 3g router firmware. I have done this. It seems that I am now able to see the broadcast of the 3g router, with my laptop (and desktop). I will see if this success continues.

In the end I will use only one of the routers. My partner doesn't want me banging holes in walls – so have fed the antenna cable in the window in my daybed room. This is where the router will be put.

Whilst still using both the wifi router and the 3g router, should I go into setting and change both to 20mhz? (is this a good idea even if I keep just one router).

I am on a month by month contract with dodo (adsl), so have no problems changing (and of course I have started a gmail account).

Thanks once again. I hope I have cleared up my situation and any assistance you provide will be appreciated.

Regards Tad