Wireless network timeouts

Interference? Anything operating on the 2.4Ghz band can cause it, and it will make the overall performance of your wireless network suffer when it happens. Microwaves running, cordless phones, other wireless networks could all do it.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

IIRC, there is a particular implementation that Orinco put in their PCMCIA wireless adaptors that is specifically tailored to prevent a wireless network slowing down indefinitely in the presence of the regular interference that can leak from a microwave oven.

802.11 implements CSMA/CA (Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Avoidance). If a wireless node senses a 'jam signal' (a pattern of bits announcing another node's intention to transmit), it will back off for a randomly chosen period of time before attempting to send information. If you are in the presence of another wireless network on the same channel with enough activity, your wireless clients might be forced to back off excessively to avoid interference. I'd use a utility to 'sniff' out any available wireless networks in the area. Use a scanner that supports passive mode to pick up networks that don't broadcast their SSID.

You might also do some digging and see what kind of pings you are getting to your router, to your nameserver, and to a reliable remote address (like google.com) and if you are getting any packet loss.

P.S.
The avatar is me running a picture of myself (you can't see the half hawk I had at the moment) through a couple of Photoshop filters out of sheer boredom.

There's nowhere I can't reach.