When I got my 2nd newer Desktop I connected that by cable to the router and tried a wireless adapter on the older XP system but it wouldn't connect.
I had to reconnect the router cable to the XP machine, access the router's home page via my browser, and set up the wireless connection from there. It needed that stable connection to be able to set it up.
The other option I had was without the cable direct connection, to sprint to the other room where the router is,press a button, then sprint back to the Desktop to finalise the connection. My sprinting days are over, so I chose the direct connection route.
Mark
I'm using a dlink network adapter(6 months old) on my pc, have always
gotten an excellent signal. Main pc in house is hooked up to dir-615
router & works fine. I had some bsod's recently & decided to
reformat xp. An xp repair didn't work. Loaded the driver for the adapter, got an excellent signal,
but couldn't access the net. The signal shows 4 green bars for about 20
seconds, then all white bars for a few seconds, then back to green. It
keeps dropping the signal over & over. The network card shows its
working properly. I did an ipconfig, and it says "media state
disconnected" & shows no addresses. If the dlink adapter is faultly
then i'm assuming it wouldn't work in the first place. I'm thinking its
some setting not right in the pc. The reformat went fine, loaded all the
drivers in the right order. I only have IE for a browser which i need
to access the net with to load firefox & all other programs plus
service pack 3 & other xp updates back on with. When i loaded the
driver for the dlink adapter, i used a different workgroup/name than the
network name originally used to set up the dlink router if that means
anything. I can't figure it out. I've read about resetting the winsock
which i'm going to try, but i would think that wouldn't be it since i
just reformatted the pc. Any help MUCH appreciated.

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