USB wireless nework adapter

I have observed some peculiar problems on my LAN which I am not sure are
related. But if someone can help me I would greatly appreciate.
Situation: I bought a Linksys Wireless gateway, USB wireless Network
adapter (for 2nd PC) and a wireless card (for laptop). All the 2 PCs and the
laptop running XP (XP Pro on one PC- XP Home on another PC) I was going to
use the USB adapter for my second PC and the card for the laptop.
Unfortunately while installing on the PC I started the load with the CD for
laptop card driver (they all look the same!). It loaded some stuff but then
it got stuck trying to find the laptop card so I had to terminate it. Then I
connected the USB adapter and loaded the right USB driver. Now the USB
adapter is recognized and it tells me that the wireless connection is up
with 100% strength but it cannot communicate to the gateway. Gateway does
not show that PC (I have another PC and a laptop currently on the Ethernet
LAN which I can see in the gateway). Its Ip address is also something very
different than what the gateway should be assigning (as a series with the
other devices on the LAN) although it is set up to DHCP.
The wireless on the gateway is set up for WEP 128 Bit Encr, No Broadcast
SSID and a Wep key. I have set the Wep key on the PC.
There is also a Linksys Monitor utility that starts at the start up but it
looks for a wireless card (that didn't get installed) instead for a USB
adapter. I have tried to un-install it from the Add/remove list and it ends
with successful Uninstall but still stays in the program list. The directory
Program/linksys/xxx.. network card also stays. I am not sure if the network
problems are because of the hanging pieces of the wrong install but if
someone has any suggestions on:
- why does XP say that wireless is up with 100% strength when it cant
connect to the gateway?
- how to remove the wrong install entries for the wireless card on the PC
and
- how to get the network to connect with the gateway
Any help is appreciated.
Thank you in advance.