WiFi not working - any suggestions, please?

[rjbull]

I'm in the UK.  I just bought a US Robotics MAXg wireless ADSL gateway plus matching MAXg PC card for my Win98SE laptop, a Thinkpad T22.  The gateway's configuration page says it has an Internet connection, and the right lights are on.  The PC card seems able to see the gateway, and gives a bar graph of link power.  ZoneAlarm Pro knows there's a new network.  Unfortunately, the rest of the computer doesn't believe them.  Browsers don't browse, e-mail clients say they can't connect to the server.  This happens whether I'm using WiFi or a wired connection.

Please, what else do I need to set or change?

[mouser]

i cant give specific help but there are several great networking help sites at the middle right of our links page:
http://www.donationcoder.com/Links/index.html

[m_s]

I would immediately suspect ZoneAlarm Pro - it has so many options that are there to help, that it can render a machine completely inoperable!  Try turning ZA off temporarily, and see if you can get a connection then.

[noth(a)nk.you]

+1 on m_s' comments.

I too run ZA and have had it render my internet useless on several occassions.  If turning it off fixes the problems (as it has for me in the past), you have a good place to look.

[PhilKC]

Is it *all* of your internet that fails, or just DNS (Which can feel like everything due to almost everything depending on it.)?

PhilKC

[rjbull]

@noth(a)nk.you, m_s: I wondered about ZA and tried turning it off, but no change...

@mouser:  had a quick look at those links a while back, couldn't see anything obvious. 

I hope Google (everyone's friend) may have found me what I needed to know about setting up WiFi networking here Connecting to the Wireless Network in the Regent-Carey Library. (Windows 98, ME)

Now all I have to do is try it...  <sigh>

[rjbull]

Is it *all* of your internet that fails, or just DNS (Which can feel like everything due to almost everything depending on it.)?

I don't know enough to know about the DNS, but, as you'll see from my last post, I hadn't got as far as setting the network up properly.    I have yet to try it, it's on another PC, but it looks like the right approach.  I really think the manuals should have said something about how to set up networking, and they didn't 

<later>

PhilKC, your extensive Web site is very easy to navigate