Belkin PCI 802.11g desktop card problems and solutions

I recently moved, and decided we didnt want to run cable in our flat. I
have posted this so it might help others with similar problems.

I already had a linksys 802.11g router, which already had the wireless
network set up for my pocket pc and some friends of mine with laptops.

We went to PC World (for the instant gratification - or so we hoped)
and bought 2 Belkin Wireless PCI cards. I followed the software,
installed them both as instructed - and coud not get them to connect.
They would sometimes breifly see my network, then it would disappear.

I tried letting windows handle it - both with discovering, and with
presetting the ssid. I used the wep key hthat was already functioning
on my PDA - again - rarely got a connection then it disappeared.

I tried moving the router - though this was odd to me, because the PDA
was getting excellent connectivity anywhere in the flat.

I eventually gave up for a week, and drilled holes for one wired
connection just so I had at least one desktop with the net
connectivity. Then my wife was insistant that we either got these
working, or refunded them and got some more cabling. I went full on
this morning. I tried isolating the driver only files of the belkin
software, uninstalling the whole software, then just adding the
software and rebooting - this failed to work. I tried putting the bekin
in charge completely - this seemed to see the network more often. In
frustration - I tried (without much luck) and WZC Ad-hoc between the
two desktops, this didnt really work.

I then disabled the WZC on both computers, and scoured the settings
page on my router. It had one item relating to auto-authentication,
which was in addition to the WEP key I had chosen. I disabled this,
then disabled, and re-enabled each of the desktops wireless netword
cards, and they then found the network.

It is not the most secure, but does require a wep key/passphrase to log
in to it - but I now have solid connectivity.

I hope readers can get what they will out of this - but it appears to
me the vital step was disabling the WZC, and disabling the addition
authentication setting on the router. I still needed to input my
passphrase on each computer - so it is not open, but now my network
works great.

Orion