Wireless laptop drops connection

Could anyone give me a clue why a wireless laptop running Windows XP pro drops its wireless connection on a regular basis every 5 minutes or so?

To get it to reconnect, I simply have to go to properties for the individual connection and press "ok" The WEP pass key is still there unchanged. With encryption off, there is no problem staying connected.

I never had this problem until I changed my encryption to open WEP. I wonder if the connection is momentarily bypassing the encryption? doubtful. The wireless connection tab says its both connected and not connected. Systray wireless connection shows X, not connected, but I do have internet connection for a few minutes. This is a pain to constantly have to reconnect.