BleepingComputer.com: Wireless Network Not Working

Ran Network Setup Wizard on my HP Pavilion a1340n and picked a new name for my network. Then I tried to connect via a wireless adapter on my Dell Optiplex GX260 but when I clicked the network icon in the system tray which shows the available networks within range, I only see a linksys_WPS_7995 network which is not the name I gave my network during setup. At this point I tried to connect to that available network with the network key that was generated during network setup but the program (Wireless Network Connection 2) would not connect (the program states that it's waiting for the network to be ready but then it stops waiting and stops trying to connect).

What am I doing wrong? I intially didn't need to setup anything and only used Network Setup Wizard because another computer was unable to connect. Now I have two computers that won't connect (that intial one has the belkin wireless adapter and this second computer has a linksys adapter).

Router Computer (cable internet enabled and up):
HP Pavilion a1340n
Windows XP Media Center SP3
Linksys WRT160N Router

New Computer Not Connecting:
Dell Optiplex GX260
Windows XP Professional SP3
Linksys AE1000 USB Adapter

Inital Computer Not Connecting:
Dell Dimension 2400
Windows Xp Home SP2
Belkin F6D4050v1 USB Adapter

This post has been edited by solarfog: 06 November 2011 - 07:50 AM

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See this link if you have everything setup accordingly http://www.wikihow.com/Configure-a-Linksys-WRT160N-Router . You could skip steps 6,7,8.
Make sure your router's wireless network is broadcast or not hidden.

Alright, thank you. I did what you said and that computer is up now.

Would you care to take a crack at why my intial computer does not find the wireless signal? I have the adapter driver installed but Windows doesn't even show a wireless network icon in the system tray. I've been figuring it has something to do with an uninstalled device in Device Manager under the Other Devices group called the Network Controller. My attempts at trying to install it from Dell seem to have failed as the only thing available to download that looks like it might be a network controller seems to install and adapter under the Network group in Device Manager thusly leaving the Network Controller still uninstalled.

Here's what I downloaded from Dell.

And here is the list of drivers; any idea which one I'm suppose to install or is this not even related to why I can't find the network on my Belkin adapter PC?

This post has been edited by solarfog: 09 November 2011 - 12:56 PM

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This is the link for your driver,version 1 http://en-us-support.belkin.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/2752/~/f6d4050---n150-enhanced-wireless-usb-network-adapter---software-and-drivers however check first on your device manager for any other flags or marks. You might also forgot that there are CDs to install the USB adapter drivers.

I figured out what that flagged network controller was by going into its properties and then doing a search using its Device Instance Id which is under the Details tab.

I'm going to go ahead and leave it uninstalled as I am not going to use that adapter and that I would have to open the computer to read it's version number in order to download the correct software.

The Belkin software I have installed is the correct one as I obtained it from the cd.

There are no more flagged items in Device Manager.

I figured out the reason my Belkin computer did not find the network: it is because some services were not starting which is a known problem on that computer and not related to networking or rather not exclusive to it. The services that help get things rolling are DHCP Client and Distributed Link Tracking Client. I also removed the network controller that I was not using from the computer.