Slow connecting to router

[#1]

Everytime I open the "lid" on my laptop, it takes a long time to connect to the PlusNet router. When I am using it at other friends' places, it connects right away to their router. Quite often it takes so long to connect to the PlusNet router that I have to manually connect to it. Why does it not connect automatically and why does it take so loong?

[#2]

Do you witness the same 'slow connect' problem when you shut down the laptop and then power it on using the on/off power switch ?

Can you provide more info about your laptop such as make/model ?
I presume it is running Windows.  What version?
If the problem only occurs when the laptop is trying to resume from sleep mode, it sounds like a wireless driver issue.  An updated driver may fix it.