Can anyone recommend a laptop?

Can anyone recommend a decent laptop that won't break the bank? Mine has gone on the blink again this evening ( doesn't "see" our home wifi even though it can "see" our neighbours). All other devices in the house can see the home network. I reinstalled the operating system so the thing should be completely free of any malware. Depending on recommendations, I might pick up a new one in Edinburgh next week.

I have an advent and it is great D, only problem is the keyboard sometimes does not pick up if you type too fast, but I think they have addressed that. It is Curry's own one and not too much.

I like my Aspire 5732ZG I also have an Aspire One netbook but that is only good enough for taking notes on holiday as the keyboard is too small and an Acer TravelMate 5720 but that's a bit heavy

Two of my neighbours are IT people, i asked them which to get, Both said Macs, end of, i was in Costco today, £800 ish, i didnt buy one, James the youngest said "If you want budget then Acer or Dell, But then do i want to get a tablet for watching stuff on the plane and just surfing Ebay, I cant make my mind up, but sure as eggs are eggs soon as you buy anything something else will crop up, Nightmare innit, Cam bought Mermaid a new one ask how thats doing and what is it,

Tablets are still very limited. I had a dell before this and not as good as this.

Why buy in Edinburgh ? long way to take it back if it goes wrong, cant you get good deals on the net where you live, or are you stuck to paying local prices in euros???
Know when I was over in Ireland (NI) last year, when we visited friends in the south, they told us they took their car to a dealership in the north to have it serviced, about a three to four hour round trip, seemingly the cost of the petrol and a day out was well compensated for in the cost saving.
Oh, and another thing, kids were going to Edinburgh, what we going to do dad, buy a computer, wow great dad...

Depending how much you can spend if a bit more highly recommend a Sony Viao ours has been superb fast reliable no issues since we got it we picked that over a Dell but both were bit more expensive as it was replacing our old PC do wanted a good one.

When it gets replaced it will be for a Mac book, used Macs all my working life easily best computers out there.
As for tablets very handy & useable holiday out & about etc, our iPad is used constantly but you don't have likes of USB ports or disc drives so its all done wirelessly which could mean more expense.

Best go into somewhere like Currys (are they still going ?) PC World etc and tell them what you need and how much your budget is they'll be desperate for a sale at this time of year as the Xmas & NY sales are finished and figures will be down.. try it on with them never ask never know !.

I have a laptop from Currys Lenovo Ideapad using windows 7.. I like it and not had any problems with it. I hhave never had a Mac so can't comment on them. LR has a Samsung

Thanks for all the suggestions. I'm not going to spend a fortune on a new one as I only use it intermittently at home, and for work on occasion. I could buy one online with Amazon, but some of their items/sellers won't ship to Ireland. Going to give fixing it one last go. If no joy, I think I'll go for the Advent or another HP one I have my eye on.

Dermo, try resetting your router. There should be a reset/restart button. Try that first. There should also be a wee hole you can push a pin in, this resets the router back to factory defaults. Be wary of this though if you have changed the original WEP/WAP key.

Cant be the router Cam, every other device is picking up the signal. it may be a faulty wireless adapter card though I'm not sure how as it is able to pick up the neighbours networks. The only other thing I can think of is that the laptop is "blocking" the signal as some sort of security threat. I've googled the problem but no one seems to have an answer to it

Edit: I'm actually using it now as when I turned it on earlier, it was working fine (again!)

i have a macbook pro for work (new job started yesterday) and it's going ok so far but after nearly 20 years of using windows it takes getting used to

I have an HP Compaq 6720s. I have had it since 2008 (used slightly off ebay, probably stolen then) and it has cost nowt in the meantime. Before I also had an HP but that got nicked, had one repair but quite cheap.

Probably go some wrong type pictures on the hard drive.