PC w/ wireless USB adapter can't connect to network?

Right.

I'm trying to get a desktop PC to connect to my wireless network (which presently has only one desktop PC on it). The router came free with the service from Orange (it's called a 'Livebox', manufactured possibly by some company called Inventel?). I'm using a wireless USB adapter, a Netgear one, I think it's the WG111. I bought it while I was living in America (I'm in the UK now). Basically, the USB adapter can see my network but cannot connect. I've turned the firewall off and the WEP off for the sake of troubleshooting. Using either the XP application or the Netgear application, I ask it to connect to my network, and then it either does nothing or pauses for a second and says just above the taskbar "wireless connection unavailable". In the command prompt, ipconfig reveals that the media state is disconnected. The adapter has a small blue LED that just flashes, which according to Netgear's manual, means its searching for a network. I thought it could be some kind of issue involving a clash between the XP and Netgear applications, but I've tried them both alone and nothing changes.

I assumed there must be an issue with the USB adapter so I went out and bought a Belkin USB adapter. Exact same issue - "wireless connection unavailable". So I'm sure there's nothing wrong with my adapter, which brings me to the PC I'm trying to connect - I can't imagine there is anything wrong with that as I literally reinstalled XP last night because the hard drive failed recently. I've checked the settings on the router firmware and everything looks fine.

Obviously this has something to do with the fact that my computer doesn't really see my USB adapter since it comes up in ipconfig as "media disconnected", but I'm stuck. Any ideas are highly appreciated.

Thanks

Okay, a little update, no resolution though. I found this fix on this forum while looking around for answers:

I ran ipconfig again and got this:

..which looked really promising until...

Then for some reason while I was fiddling around it returned this:

None of this made much difference though, and after optimistically plugging and unplugging USB devices like this guy suggested, I still cannot connect. Any advice is appreciated!

Those numbers have me stumped.

It's no surprise you couldn't contact the DHCP server, which should probably be your router, aka the Default Gateway. It's IP address certainly wouldn't be 255.255.255.255, but rather something like 192.168.0.1 or 192.168.1.1

Does it come up as 255.255.255.255 for your ethernet-connected desktop PC?

The subnet mask would probably be 255.255.255.0

Are you certain "Obtain an IP address automatically" and "Obtain a DNS server automatically" are turned on in your network TCP/IP properties?

Are you trying to connect in the same room as the router, just to make sure the original problem wasn't caused by weak signal?

I thought the numbers looked bizarre as well. It doesn't come up as 255.255.255.255 on the connected PC, it comes up as 192.168.1.1, the router address. All the numbers in ipconfig for the connected PC look fine. Obtain IP/DNS addresses automatically is turned on on the unconnected PC. It did not occur to me that it COULD be a weak signal issue, the PC I'm trying to connect is upstairs. I would be extremely disappointed if this was the case, but I will lug it down here in a few minutes and see what happens. If that is the case, then this is the weakest router I have ever come across.

PCs are now in the same room and there is still no connection, so weak signal can be ruled out. Someone suggested this:

I installed SP2 and did this but all it did was send my media state back to disconnected.

This problem has been driving me crazy. I can't find anything like it online, I've been searching for ages. I'm leaving on Thursday and would really like to have this sorted before I go. If anyone has any idea, please post! Thanks

EDIT: Trying to give as much info as possible. The router is an Inventel DV4210-WU provided by Orange. I can hardly find anything useful on Google about this product though.

I don't know if giving the laptop a static IP like 192.168.1.30 and manually entering 192.168.1.1 as the gateway would work. I don't have my laptop here to test it.

Or maybe the problem is in the router's settings.

I don't think the issue is in the router settings, I've triple-checked and fiddled with them and nothing seems to be changing. Tried changing channels, the DHCP range, made sure there is no MAC filtering, turned off WEP, everything should be okay. I'm going to try giving the unconnected desktop a static IP and all that, but I get a little iffy with things like DNS servers and that. Are they the same as the router?

hi, ur sure wlan is enabled from the router... if so, radio from router has problem. try another router.

is ur pc wi-fi as well? check from that side to see if you can get the signal. if not, really problem from router radio. otherwise, nb or xp in nb has some issues.

did u try both the windows wireless zero and the client's own utility software on the nb? did u get the same problem?