VoIP and XP Pro

I have two PCs - home office PC runs XP Pro and connects via wifi to router. Playroom PC runs 98SE and also connects via wifi to the router. Both wifi adaptors are Netgear USB, 98SE is a V1 and XP is V2. No problems with either until I tried using VoIP*

XP Pro PC give pretty poor line quality, over the Tesco (Freshtel) network and over Sipgate. In both cases the line drops after no more than a minute. I can see the "gap" in tx/rx on the utility provided by Netgear to manage the USB adaptor. If I run VoIP over freecall.com then I get great line quality, but still the line drops.

98SE PC can only run the Tesco system, as X-Lite is 200/XP only. Line quality is better than on the XP box, but not as good as the freecall.com solution, but no line drops.

* reason for installing VoIP in a hurry is because my BT lines were cut by Farmer Giles' plough, literally. My broadband connection comes via wireless from a local SP, and is presented as an Ethernet port in the loft, as the external antenna is bolted to the gable end. Positioning the wifi router in the loft gives a great signal in/outside. Thus it's difficult to take the XP Pro PC to the router and wire it direct, though I might try!

Any creative suggestions on solving this would be very much appreciated.

Lone_star

[hillieren]

too many things maybe effected. to make it simple, go hardware and you'll find lots of improvements