WiFi Connection w/Window 7

I have a home WiFi network that I've been using for some time. The router is a LinkSys WRT54G connected to a cable modem. The Linksys router is "wired" to a Windows XP Desktop PC and a "wireless" connection to a Windows XP Laptop PC. I recently purchased an additional laptop with Windows 7 O/S. I cannot connect the new Windows 7 PC to the network using either an automatic setup with a USB device loaded with software provided by LinkSys or by manually configuring the connection. The laptop "sees" my network and several others in the area, but will not connect wirelessly. The LinkSys software cannot detect my WLan card, it reports that I need to turn "on" my radio, when, in fact it is "on." I suspect the LinkSys software is for Windows XP and can't communicate with WLan, so I moved on to a manual configure. After double checking and rechecking that I've entered the right security key, it still won't connect to the network when configured manually. If I make a "wired" connection to the router, everything is fine.

I am not an expert when it comes to this, but here are some things worth considering. Double Check if your Wife Card drive is installed. Double check if it is "Enabled". Now, you may be thinking hey it's on. There are some laptops that has button need to be press before Wlan be enabled. Does the Wifi Led is lit? Can your laptop connect to other network? Free wifi zones perhaps. I am not familiar with your router, but check this. is the wireless radio is enable? Is the encryption you use is supported by your wlan card? The fact that being wired is ok, You should only focus on your router's wireless configuration and your laptop wireless card. Also uninstall the linksys software on your laptop. Manually is better. Hopes this helps.

I finally got this working last night and wanted to share the results in case someone else encounters this problem. I went through all the usual steps…resetting router, checking encryption key, verifying drivers, etc. The software which controls my WiFi router setup is LinkSys LELA (LinkSys Easy Link Advisor). My version was approximately 1 year old, so I decided to download a more recent version from LinkSys. After I downloaded the updated version and reestablished connections with my Windows XP machines, the Windows 7 laptop still would not connect automatically using LELA, but I was able to manually configure the connection, which I wasn't able to do before. Now, I know that routers are "suspposed" to be independent of the O/S, but the only thing I can figure is the updated version of LELA also updated my router to communicate with the Windows 7 machine. Dell Inspiron 1545: Windows 7 64 bit Dell wireless 1397 802.11g mini-card LinkSys WRT54g v8