LinuxQuestions.org - WLAN on Thinkpad T23 unstable

I have a Thinkpad T23 with builtin WLAN adapter.
lspci: 0000:02:02.0 Network controller: Intersil Corporation Prism 2.5 Wavelan chipset (rev 01)

I'm running Ubuntu 5.10 (kernel 2.6.12-10-386) which autodetects the card and loads the modules hermes, orinoco and orinoco_pci.

Basically this setup works, but after a while (5-60 min) it gets unstable. That means, it looses the connection.
This happens even with perfect signal and it happens in different networks.
Today I booted Gentoo a 2006.0 live-CD to see if it also happens with another distro. Same behaviour there (kernel 2.6.15)

I wonder about this because Prism 2.5 seems to be well supported in Linux of what I've read.

Of what I understood it should be possible to use other drivers.
I can't figure out how to do this. I tried to unload the 3 modules mentioned above and to load the module hostap_pci, but nothing happend. Which alternative drivers exist and how do I load them?

Also I've read that the firmware version has big influence. How can I find out which version I have / how to update it?

Thanks for every advice!

EDIT:
this is what dmesg outputs when the problems begin:

Quote:

Mar 19 17:45:12 localhost kernel: [ 6798.238397] eth0: New link status: AP Out of Range (0004)
Mar 19 17:45:13 localhost kernel: [ 6798.613183] eth0: New link status: AP In Range (0005)
Mar 19 17:45:29 localhost kernel: [ 6814.350032] eth0: New link status: AP Out of Range (0004)
Mar 19 17:45:29 localhost kernel: [ 6814.724718] eth0: New link status: AP In Range (0005)
Mar 19 17:58:04 localhost -- MARK --
Mar 19 18:02:42 localhost kernel: [ 7847.524689] NETDEV WATCHDOG: eth0: transmit timed out
Mar 19 18:02:42 localhost kernel: [ 7847.524708] eth0: Tx timeout! ALLOCFID=ffff, TXCOMPLFID=ffff, EVSTAT=8000
Mar 19 18:02:43 localhost kernel: [ 7848.863135] eth0: New link status: Connected (0001)
Mar 19 18:04:29 localhost kernel: [ 7954.493854] NETDEV WATCHDOG: eth0: transmit timed out
Mar 19 18:04:29 localhost kernel: [ 7954.493871] eth0: Tx timeout! ALLOCFID=ffff, TXCOMPLFID=ffff, EVSTAT=8000
Mar 19 18:04:30 localhost kernel: [ 7955.832418] eth0: New link status: Connected (0001)
Mar 19 18:04:36 localhost kernel: [ 7961.445035] NETDEV WATCHDOG: eth0: transmit timed out
Mar 19 18:04:36 localhost kernel: [ 7961.445052] eth0: Tx timeout! ALLOCFID=ffff, TXCOMPLFID=ffff, EVSTAT=8000
Mar 19 18:04:37 localhost kernel: [ 7962.739548] eth0: New link status: Connected (0001)
Mar 19 18:04:43 localhost kernel: [ 7968.396216] NETDEV WATCHDOG: eth0: transmit timed out
Mar 19 18:04:43 localhost kernel: [ 7968.396233] eth0: Tx timeout! ALLOCFID=ffff, TXCOMPLFID=0000, EVSTAT=8000
Mar 19 18:04:44 localhost kernel: [ 7969.781088] eth0: New link status: Connected (0001)
Mar 19 18:04:58 localhost kernel: [ 7983.348756] NETDEV WATCHDOG: eth0: transmit timed out