I try and do something complicated like connect to a wireless network.

Because I know that wireless is fraught with problems such as interference and people or trees getting in the way of the signal, let me make this clear that when the notebook is running Windows XP the connection is fine and works within about 5 minutes of turning the notebook on. And I didn't move it either.

I thought that one reason might be that the network I wanted to connect to has a hidden name. That might be true but the other available network with a public name didn't work either.

After several attempts I tried clicking on the Diagnose the problem button. The answer was 'Wireless association failed due to an unknown reason'. Well that was a lot of help.

Next stop the Microsoft KnowledgeBase and the article Connecting to non-broadcast wireless networks in Windows Vista. It seems that these connections should be set up manually. I'm not even going to consider using the Command Prompt. I think I've tried a manual connection, but the sheer number of different dialogue windows means I'm starting to lose track.

A quick look on the Buffalo website reveals this article saying that the Vista drivers should be used instead and that seemed to work better until I tried to use the connection to browse the internet. I was only trying the Buffalo card because it is high gain and therefore might solve the problem of dodgy reception. The Buffalo wireless manager wouldn't work either.

What gets me is that although it took a while the wireless support in Windows XP works. I might even go further and describe it as fairly robust. It's not really progress, especially with the problems I've had when trying a wired connection.

And I've genuinely forgotten why I was trying to connect to the web in the first place....