Network connection problems with vista 64 bit

i have a relatively new vaio cs290 that my mom used for a month in the us. she said the internet connection and wireless connectivity were seamless during that time, however, as soon as i used it in my dorm with a dlink di524 router, i started to have irregular connections, where my roomate who uses vista home basic does not nor does my brother who uses windows xp

here are some of the problems i have been having, similar to that of edeude
1. have not been able to connect automatically to my preferred network
2. if i do connect, i get local only
3. if i do get the internet connection i'm able to browse for a while, then suddenly am unable to load webpages, even if it indicates that i am still connected to the internet
4. have tried resetting it and can only get a stable connection after several tries.

I have attempted to fix it using the registry edit regarding the DHCPflagbcast toggle and the DHCP force etc but still the problem persists, i have turned off ipv6 and i have also disabled the wired LAN connection in an effort to fix things.i have been searching threads high and low to no avail. would anyone know if the problem is with the laptop, its BIOS, Vista or the router?

should i restore my registry to default settings?

I hope someone could help, Thanks