Vista wireless internet issue (local access only)

I bought my wife a new Emachine computer last night. It has Vista installed. I plug in a Netgear USB 2.0 wireless G adapter.

The problem is sporadic internet access.

If I move the cursor over the wireless icon in the system tray, it says "local access only ". Yet I either have 2 or 3 bars. So it's apparantly connected to my network, so why can't it connect to the internet?

Never seen this happen with XP. If you got at least 2 bars you got internet access. In other words I've never seen a "local access only" error before with XP. I have seen limited internet access but that's only with 1 bar.

I couldn't figure out how to disable the program that came with the adapter (couldn't just install the drivers) so I just removed it from the startup folder so it wouldn't run. I thought that may have been conficting with the Windows wireless program but it doesn't seem to help any.

Could I just have a flaky USB wireless adapter?

Also when it does say it's connected to the internet, it will say "Website found waiting.." and may take a minute before it connects to a webpage.

 

Found out the problem. Or so it seems.

I got my Belkin "G" USB adapter back from my stepson and plugged it into my wife's computer.

Last night it had perfect internet. I even launced an internet radio station from Australia and let it run overnight to see how long it would stay connected. My wife said it was still going this morning.

My origination assumption was it was just a defective adapter from the get-go. But because of my inexperience of Vista I wasn't sure.

She took the Netgear USB adapter back to Wal-Mart to exchange it from another Belkin "G" and the guy said two other people had already brought back Netgear adapters that same day complaining they were defective.

So based on that I'd say stay away from Netgear products.

I've purchased several brands of wireless adapters and so far the best adapter I've purchased is the Belkin "G" adapter.