Hot Spot Connection Suddenly Stopped Working

[oldbob]

After some initial struggle, I got my Thinkpad with PClinuxOS and a Realtek LAN card working at the local library hot spot. At recent visits, I just booted up opened the browser and I was on line.

This afternoon when I opened the browser and there was NO CONNECTION to the internet !! Since my Thinkpad is a dual boot, I shutdown and booted up Win98SE. When I opened the browser, I was online BUT the connection was not the greatest. The tiny icon in the lower right corner flickered between "four & five bars" and sometimes cutout altogether. I was able to "surf the 'net" and open various sites.

I shutdown Win98SE and booted up PCLOS again, still no internet. I started changing various settings [which probably did more harm than good] but was unable to get online.

Any ideas or suggestions ?