XP not recognizing USB Wireless adapter

I have a LinkSys USB wireless adapter (WUSB54G) connected
to my Compaq AP1500 laptop running XP Home and a LinkSys
Wireless Router/Access Point(WRT54G) running on 2000. I
have been having difficulty maintaining the wireless
networking connection.
After having established connection and shutting down, the
wireless connection is not available on the next boot-up -
no wireless connection in Network Places. Removing the
adapter and rebooting a few times had managed to get the
wireless networking established. However, the network
connection established has an identity of Connection n+1
where n was the previous connection ID. Running
TCPoptimizer showed N+1 wirless connections.
How can I resolve this problem and maintain a consistent
network connection? Thank you in advance. Email replies
would be appreciated.