Wireless issues.

So basically, I just rebuilt my entire computer, very happy with it, although I'm still waiting on the Video Card to get here, and as such am being forced to make do with the onboard card, but I can live, the problem is, no matter what I try, I seem to be unable to connect to the internet.

I have the internet card attached to my mobo, I have the antenna set up just fine, I checked the Device Manager, and it tells me that the internet card is found, and that all drivers are up to date, I even went and downloaded the drivers on a friends computer, and brought them back over to reinstall them, and even that did nothing.

I'm kind of at a loss as to what to do next, I decided to try going to advanced settings in Network in the hopes that I would be able to set up a wireless network in that, but its not even an option, all I see is Broadband, and if I uncheck the box asking me if I want to see unsupported Network options, all it shows me is Dial-Up, and Wireless is not even an option.

As this is a totally new fresh out of the box HDD, do I have to enable Wireless for it to even show up? Do I have to install something from somewhere to make it work? Is it possible the OS doesn't support Wireless Connections, as I'm currently using the Win7 Beta Client while I wait for my WinXP discs to get back to me? Or am I basically screwed, and some piece of hardware in my new system is not compatible with Wireless or with my Internet Card.

*edit* Just to add this, my wireless card does support Win7, I installed the Drivers just fine, and after a quick check, it says they supposed do work together, so I'm kind of at a loss here as to what might be wrong.

Can you get on the internet by direct connection? If so then what wireless card have you added? (I am assuming you do have a router and is it working... correct?) There should be software that came with the card. You should install the wireless card with this software. If the automatic pop up from windows to add new hardware comes up close it then insert the disk and follow the software provided.

Unfortunately, since you left out some info, we need to ask the basic questions first:

Do you have a wireless router?
Is the wireless enabled in the router?
Can other computers connect wirelessly?
Have you gone to Control Panel >> Network & Sharing and run "Setup a network connection"? (That's for Vista, Win7 may be a bit different.)

Yes I do have a wireless router, other computers are connected to it ( its how I'm writing this right now ), the wireless is all set up, and has been working flawlessly for 6-7 years now? And yes, I tried to set up a network connection, the only option that came up was to set up either a broadband connection, or a dialup connection, wireless was not an option.

The problem for me is, this computer is set up in a fairly bad place, and there is absolutely no chance of me being able to set up an ethernet cord, as the computer is downstairs, and the only plug in this building has is upstairs, and I don't even know if it works anymore.

More information though.

I have the disc for a Linksys Wireless G-PCI WMP54G, however, device manager tells me I have a Realtek RTL8168C, I've tried installing the drivers for both, neither actually changes anything. I then figured it may have something to do with the fact my Network Connector ( or something along those lines ) is showing up as Unknown, so I downloaded a program to check and see what it was labeled as, and it showed up as a Linksys Network Adaptor, but also as a Ralink RT2500 802.11

So I went and downloaded the drivers for those products, and tried installing them, the Linksys drivers didn't seem to do anything at all, while the Ralink drivers just installed, and then put a little message in my toolbar telling me this computer didn't have a working Ralink product in it, so they could do nothing.

The RTL8168 is a wired network adapter, so no help there.

Maybe your wireless card is just DoA - can you return/replace it?