Hey FurryNutz!!
I did do a factory reset and i piped in all the info manually, it didn't work.....
But, after more troubleshooting and poking around the nic properties
I freeking finally figured out the reason why the laptops would disconnect when i turned on the Vista tower, you ready for it?? wait for it.......wait for it.........in the nic properties i unchecked TCP/IPv6!
I would have never thought this feature would ever cause an issue like this!!?!!
Anyway, after doing that i kept the network page open on both laptops, and two hours later they we're still connected.
During this time i was using the web on both LTs and even transferring hugh files between them and its been working like a charm!!!!! Who would have thought huh!!
Just to test, i enabled the TCP/IPv6 on the tower and bam! the LTs disconnect like clockwork!
So, if anyone is having a similar issue like this i would definitely say try to disable/enable this feature and see what you get.
At least now i can have my cake and eat too!! : )
Thanks everybody, FurryNutz