Ok. I finally got my wireless to connect to the Internet. It may not be the ideal solution but it worked. Here's what was happening. I have a wireless router and a HP latop with Vista Home Premium. The laptop would connect to the Internet only if I had it wired directly to the router. The Network would show "Local and Internet". When I conncet wirelessly though, it would only show "Local". That means I could only browse locally and no Internet. That was driving me nuts for a few days. I even brought it to Best Buy and it just connected to their wireless there. :-( So, they told me that it was a network configuration.
Here are the specs
wireles nic - Broadcom 802.1g
router - Linksys WRT54G version 1.1 with 4.2 firmware (latest)
The solution is to hardcode the ip, subnet and gateway on the wireless adapter. For example, if the ISP (in this case, Shaw), give you an IP of 70.68.202.xx, you need to hardcode on the card and IP of 70.68.202.200. Put the same gateway as the shaw cable. That should change the connectivity to "Local and Internet"
Problems with this setup.
1. ISP may change IP addresses and then you have a problem again.
2. All your devices need to have the Shaw IP.
I know the ideal setup is the router should have the 192.168.1.xxx address with the ISP 70.68.xxx.xxx as the external address. All internal network devices should have 192.168.1.xxx.
Good luck in figuring this out. It took me 4 days to figure it out because it is not the conventional way.
You can use WEP and anti-virus software with this. I use Norton 360.