Cannot connect my wireless adapter to Belkin...

Based on what you have told me your major problem appears to be the WEP encryption (please I do not want me or the rest of the world to know your WEP passphrase so do not put it in a reply here -- you probably already know that). I will deal with WEP later.

PS if you have WEP you do not have WPA.

All ethernet adapters have a MAC address as a unique or a near unique ID so the WAN side of your router has one as you have indicated. Mac filtering means entering the MAC addresses of your network cards into a table in the router (another area) and only allowing those devices to access your routers services. IF you do not have it don't worry about it now.

Now I am at a disadvantage lacking a manual for your USB adapter. However -
Have you found the ability to enable WEP security on the wireless USB adapter in it's configuration. IF so what is the number of bits of encryption (probably 128 and/or 64) for the USB adapter? Does that match the number of bits for the router? If not change the adapter to match the router if possible, As a last resort change the router and your other two wireless adapter to match the USB Wireless card. (if shortening of the number of bits occur the passphrase and keys will get shorter,) Was the appropriate passphase or key(s) put in (if the USB adapter only accepts one key (not a passphrase) it must be the active one of the four on the router? If so and the IP Address, subnet mask, gateway, and DNS addresses are either dynamically (and the router has DHCP on) or statically set properly the adapter should work.

IF not regardless of the static or dynamic IP address the adapter will never connect to your wireless router while it has WEP security enabled -- it cannot encrypt messages so the ourter can understand them. Then you have two possible alternatives the unlikely possibility that the USB Wireless Adapter supports WPA encryption (possibly called WAP) -- if your router and other wireless adapters do that may be an upgrade path. Until you tell me other wise I will assume this is not an option.

Several other options to consider

A wired connection for the new desktop (does not affect wireless security)

Purchasing a WEP capable wireless adapter for the new machine (costs money but preserves the wireless security)

VERY UNDESIRABLE -- removing WEP from all the wireless devices (router and two laptops) leaving your wireless transmissions in plain text and no protection keeping others from using your wireless. A slight improvement on this is to implement MAC filtering in the router and enter the mac addresses of at least the three wireless cards and possibly the wired network adapter to limit access to your router. Unfortunately even this leaves you with plain text radio transmissions as well as having to add the mac address of visitors to your router to allow them to access your network and possibly deleteing them when they leave.

Sorry but without a manual you will have to determine what is possible based on the above -- I will be here to answer any questions you may have about that process or beyond just continue to reply to these messages.

It may be the driver but I doubt it - because you are seeing routers and have not indicated the ability to enter the necessary WEP key. We come back to the driver later if we can solve the WEP issue.

First you seem to be doing great at looking things up.

Your original choice of WEP sounds correct due to the wireless adapter that did not support WPA -- right again

Yes 64 bit encryption is 10 hex characters 0-9 A-F (you are three for three) (is the lowest level of WEP but is better than nothing)

IT is possible that the USB Wireless adapter may not support WEP. If you cannot find it in the configuration and put in the necessary key because of a lack of documentation at least temporarily we will need assume that is true.


Were you seeing your router name on the machine with the USB wireless adapter before? Yes or no (I was thinking yes before was I wrong?)

IF i was right continue with these instructions --

First lets say your router on the lan side is addressed as 192.168.0.1 and has a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0
That means valid addresses for things attached to the router all start 192.168.0.? Lets say the router can assign IP addresses using DHCP starting at 192.168.0.100 for 50 leases meaning the last dynamic IP address is 192.168.0.149 (100 is the first and 149 is the 50th) OK so far I hope. That means that 192.168.0.2 - 192.168.0.99 are available for static IP addresses (there are more above 192.168.0.149 but we are going to ignore them)

There are only four other devices that will have IP addresses on this network we have discussed so far a desktop and two wireless laptops and the USB Wireless device. If the desktop and two wireless laptops use dynamic IP addresses they are all somewhere between 192.168.0.100 and 102.168.0.149. and if they are not you know exactly where they are addressed hopefully uniquely and between 192.168.0.2 and 192.168.0.99 as discussed before.

All devices must be assigned unique IP addresses a subnet address of 255.255.255.0 and a default gateway of 192.168.0.1. If DHCP supplies their IP addresses it can also supply a the DNS Server addresses supplied by your Internet Provider or sometimes a "proxy" of the gateway address of 192.168.0.1 for cards with static IP addresses the DNS servers must be assigned in the computer like the IP and gateway addresses.

This means for a computer to access the internet and resolve names like www.google.com it needs to have an unique IP address on the correct subnet (192.168.0.?), the appropriate subnet mask (255.255.255.0), the appropriate default gateway address(192,168.0.1 in our case), and one or more valid DNS addresses. The question being is did your USB adapter have all those addresses when you tested it?

One way to check on windows XP is to open a Command Prompt and issue the command (syntax may vary slightly on your machine)
ipconfig /all

What IP address is in the USB adapter

• If static it should be unique on your network and outside any DHCP address range that can be assigned by the router. (for testing a valid static IP address is good)
• If dynamic the router needs to be set to assign IP addresses. (youmay want to change to this when it is working)

Using IP config as shown above without WEP enabled what does the ipconfig /all show for the USB wireless machine.

Another test on a command prompt window enter
ping 192.168.0.1
(use your gateway address and not the example gateway address)
If this works on your wired computer try it with the USB wireless computer and tell me if it works

if you see 4 timeouts it failed therwise you will see lines of data with elapsed time in ms (milliseconds) this worked and says the USB adapter is talking to the router.

if a browser accesses a website like www.google.com it is all working -- but you have a lack of security on your wireless that you have to decide whether or not it is acceptable.

You may not have understood seeing but it meant being able to see your router name on the PC attempting to connect wirelessly.

First mistake I think set the router DHCP range to 192.168.2.100 to 192.168.2.149 your static ip addresses CANNOT be inside the dhcp range used by the router. The must be outside or you will have what appears to be random problems.

Now I understand from you that the other 3 machines work and one with the USB device is giving us trouble. What happens when you try to connect it to you wireless router? Are there any messages?
Try the ipconfig /all and ping 192.168.2.2 after connection before trying to use the internet. PS if the ipconfig is not right the ping will fail -- no surprise there.

One other question is your router uniquely named -- if not you may be seeing someone elses duplicately named router with the USB adapter?