@ wicklowham:
Hello Frank,
thanks for your reply.
No. Perhaps I didn´t express myself correctly when referring to “web-stick”.
What I mean is a umts-stick which connects to a mobile network. Here in Germany it´s the e-plus service provider as far as I know. I purchased the stick at Aldi and thus use the medion-mobile provider which itself accesses e-plus.
But it´s interesting to learn about your Netgear-experience.
I myself have a Netgear WIFI-stick (Netgear Wireless-N 300 USB Adapter WNA3100).
But I can use it only sporadically to access my neighbour´s WLAN (with his consent of course 
). Personally I don´t have an internet-router.
Yet as this connection is pretty fragile, to say the least. I cannot always depend on it and therefore I´m often forced to use my umts-stick. And that´s the one that gave me those problems.
What I´ve done now as a first step is to eliminate the extension cord leading to the umts-stick. Perhaps a bit less resistance…
If that doesn´t work well I´ll try other things (as described by @Akito above).
Thanks again and many greetings.
Rosika 