Router Problem?? Help plz!!

Hi guys, I am a new member here, was directed to this forum by someone when I asked this question. I have a Dell Inspiron 600m laptop, with a Intel ProSET 2200bg wireless card. We are running a cable modem, Comcast cable, a 10/100 SMC Barricade router 7004AVG and a Linksys 2.4g Wireless router, Windows Home XP. We also have a regular PC hooked up to this router. I am having SERIOUS connectivity issues. It takes anywhere from a minute to two minutes to connect to a page. I frequently get a message saying the browser can not connect, and get kicked off of AOL IM. It takes FOREVER for pages to load, if they even feel like loading. At first I thought this may be a wireless issue, so I switched wireless channels, upgraded my driver and did all sorts of stuff like that. Then I plugged my computer directly into the router, same thing happened. This also happens on the PC that is regularly plugged into the router. I downloaded and installed the new Firmware for the router the other day, nothing. I asked Comcast to run a few tests on our connection, all came back good. Does anyone have any idea what this could be, or how I could isolate this problem to figure out exactly what is going on? This is very frusterating because going online to access a website is now about an hour ordeal. Thanks a lot for all of your help!

What brand/model of modem?

Sorry, it is a COM21 DOXport 111.

I've never heard of it. Googling doesn't turn up much useful information and the domain com21.com doesn't seem reachable ATM. What I was going to suggest is to go to the builtin diagnostic page and see what signal levels, etc., were, but without some relevant data, I don't know where that is on your modem. Most Motorola modems diagnostic/status pages are at 192.168.100.1 and are reachable even with a router connected. The Toshibas that I've dealt with can't be reached with the router connected but can be with a machine connected directly to the modem - and with the machine manually configured.

You do list two routers in your description of the problem. How do you have all this equipment interconnected?

I have 1 ethernet cable running from the cable modem to my SMC Barricade. I have 1 ethernet cable running from my Barricade to my PC, and one cable running from my Barricade to my Linksys Wireless, which has a wireless connection with my laptop.

Do you have the Linksys setup as a simple access point or are you using the WAN port of the Linksys to connect to the LAN side of the SMC? If the latter, disable the DHCP server on the Linksys, configure it with a static IP outside the DHCP range of the SMC and connect one of its LAN ports to one of the LAN ports of the SMC router.