We’re trying to connect a Pentium III computer running Windows 2000 to a wireless network using a USB wireless network adapter. The Linksys wireless router is set up to use WEP security and the USB adapter connection manager shows that we have a connection with excellent signal strength, but we still cannot get the PC connected to the Internet wirelessly. We followed the Linksys installation instructions. We’ve tried both DHCP on the PC and setting a fixed IP address and still nothing. There are not any other wireless computers hooked up yet, but wired connections are working fine. Any ideas about how to get the wireless going?

Since this is the first wireless system you are connecting, I would suggest going back to square one and starting over. In the Linksys Easy Advisor program under Administration you can find an option in the horizontal menu above the main panel for restoring factory defaults on the Linksys router. Do that and then on the PC uninstall the USB wireless adapter connection manager software, reboot, and reinstall the USB wireless adapter software. Use the Linksys administration software to configure the router to run in its open configuration without additional security (you’ll change that once things work the first time) and go through the steps to add the PC to the wireless network using the Add Devices option in the Linksys advisor. If the Windows 2000 PC still will not connect, try connecting a laptop or other known working wireless system to verify that the wireless network is actually working. Double check that the USB wireless adapter you are using supports the type of USB connection the Windows 2000 PC has on board, since some of the newer USB wireless sticks will only work with USB 2.0, which the Windows 2000 system probably does not have. If the hardware is all compatible you should be able to get connected with a plain vanilla wireless configuration. Once that works you can turn on security and encryption.