Can't connect

[JohnyRico0]

I recently purchased a new rig. Q6600, 8800GT, lots of ram, Vista Home Deluxe 32 bit. It's got a Broadcom 802.11g network card. I have a Linksys wrt54g wireless router. I have great signal strength. I can connect in safe mode but any other time I can connect but only gets local connectivity. All drivers are current and the router has newest firmware. On very rare occasions I can get internet but very seldom. I even tried connecting to my neighbors wireless signal but no joy there either. I've tried disabling every piece of security on the rig including Norton and windows firewalls. I'm pretty sure this is a Vista thing. I've had other computers sit in the exact spot and connect wirelessly (it's only about 10 ft. from the router). So far I've spent about 6 hours on the phone with Dell, Embarq and Linsys. All the cables are in place and I've done the unplug power from all components thing and reboot. Any ideas?

[Hammy]

Power Down everything. (modem, PC, Router)
turn off other computers and servers or temporarily disconnect them from the network.

Power up only your PC.

Turn off the network card in the configuration.
Make sure its' not in a sleep mode. you want this off.

Power it down completely (dont reboot).

Turn on the Router.

Turn on the Computer. (notice that the modem is still off)

Connect to your router.

Make sure you assign the appropriate protocol to access the network.

Power down the PC, but leave the router on.

Turn on the Modem.

When all the lights are correct, turn on the PC.

You might still have to go into the router to refresh the WAN connection, but you should be fine after that.

Once this is complete you should be fine.

What I have found is that the inbound traffic from my ISP often creates so much noise that I cannot configure a new PC or laptop to access my network.

Following these steps exactly as I have outlined here has me at nearly a perfect score when connecting to my network.

I also never allow microsoft to do anything on my network- if it wants to auto config my connection, I wont let it. Doing it manually avoids the unexplained problems that often occur when following that process.

Hope this helps. Modern wireless networks often require an excorcism, pennance, and a rabbi in order to get them to behave.