As the old saying goes, "All's well that ends well."
After all the problems I had trying to get the Linksys WPC55AG to do something useful on my Inspiron 8000, it finally works as it should.
I figured it out despite the misinformation and poor advice I got from the well meaning but ill informed tech support people at Linksys and Dell. (I mentioned that the nice lady with whom I had an online chat at Dell was a "rookie". To give you an idea of her technical competence, or lack thereof: She suggested using the Add/Remove Programs function to remove MSVCRT.DLL. When I pointed out that it was not a program but a file, she suggested deleting the file! She also recommended that I should run Mighty Max to diagnose the computer's problems.)
The problem, although the nice gentleman in Linksys second-level tech support may disagree, is the Linksys software. Although the card is definitely compatible with Windows ME, the software on the disk is definitely not.
As I've previously reported, Linksys actually has three different versions of software for this card: The one on disk called 1.2, a different one online also called 1.2 (also known as 2.4.2.33), and a third one online called 1.1.
So which of these is the right one for the job? Individually, none of the above. It takes a combination of ingredients to get the job done.
Here's what finally worked after considerable trial and error:
1. Without putting the card into the computer slot, install the CD software, and let it generate the inevitable error msg about MSVCRT.DLL.
2. Go into the directory where the software has been installed, and copy the file WLAN.INI to some other directory.
3. Uninstall the software and reboot.
4. Extract and install the 1.2 (2.4.2.33) software downloaded from the Linksys web site. (It comes in a zip file which you have to unzip to a temporary installation source directory.)
5. Shut down the computer, insert the wireless card, and boot up.
6. The computer will detect the card and look for a driver. When it asks you where it should look, specify the Drivers directory on the CD.
7. Go into the directory where the software has been installed, and copy in the WLAN.INI that you captured in step 3.
8. Reboot.
That's what got me on the air at long last. Your mileage may vary.