PLEASE HELP! Connected, but still "server cannot be found" 3rd Party Wireless USB

I'm trying to connect to my school's wireless network. My hardware and driver are working, but none of my internet applications seem to understand that! I've got a signal, but I can't download anything.

My computer: eMac 700MHz 1GIG RAM OS X.2.8

I've never tried wireless before. Looking for a cheaper alternative to Airport, I bought a NETGEAR MA111 USB device (802.11b).

The driver I found is made by D-Link, but I was told it would work. It's the driver they supply for their DWL-122, Wireless LAN USB Driver ver. 1.4.7.

Now, when I look at the driver's control panel in System Preferences, it shows some networks and shows strong connections (40%-60%) but in Safari and Internet Explorer, I get "server cannot be found" messages.

In the Network control panel, I've got "Ethernet Adapter (en1)" selected -- an item which appeared after the USB device was introduced.

So, it seems like I'm connected, but somehow the OS is not fully aware of it, or applications are unable to tap into that connection.

Any thoughts? Help of any kind of would be hugely appreciated.

Thank you very much!

David

I know others who have had issues with Netgear and D-Link. If you can, return then to where you bought them and get something by LinkSys. It will work loads better, better yet, cough up the $$$$ and buy the airport card, it will make the whole process seemless...