Woes narrowing (hopefully...)
OK after many more more attempts, and lots of research on the net, still no full connection.
Just to review: my Toshiba Satellite 5200 connects NO problem wireless (or wired). The Toshiba Satellite 2410 connects no problem WIRED, but will not connect wirelessly. I borrowed a friends 2400 and it connected using the exact same PC Card.
The 2410 Network page showed a red "X" on the wireless network connection icon on the Network Connections page until I tried the "Ad Hoc" mode. It now shows a connection, even in "Infrastructure Mode".
Whenever I click on the taskbar's Notification Area (the bottom right, near the clock) on the "Wireless Area Connection" it shows "Wireless Connection Unavailable" and when I click on that icon it brings up the "Available Wireless Networks" page, which shows the box "Allow me to connect to the selected wireless network, even though it is not secure" is unchecked, then when I check it and select "Connect" the connection occurs, but with no true connection to the internet. I try to browse and get the dreaded "HTTP 400" error. Checking TOOLS | CONNECTIONS shows everything exact and correctly as the two other laptops had, but I cannot get a connection! TCP/IP is AUTO, and everything else I go through shows fine.
Until I selected the network card to "Ad Hoc" and back again to "Infrastructure" it kept going in circles, showing as connected, then immediately would pop back up as not connected, then connected again, and with the box "Allow me to connect" as UNCHECKED again, which drove me batty.
So now it shows as connected, yet it will not truly connect to the Internet. When I run "CMD | IPCONFIG / ALL" I get an IP address, and my DHCP is shown as enabled, same for Autoconfiguration. The Default Gateway is the local Router's IP, and the Subnet Mask also is showing the local IP.
I have gone systematically through the registry, and nothing looks amiss there.
When I select "Repair" on the Network Connection page, I get "The following steps failed: Renewing the IP address...contact your network admin or ISP", but it shows the hardware as Enabled, at least.
The System shows no cautions or errors on the hardware, and all the drivers, patches, etc, are up to date.
What now (besides tossing this thing!!)? It works great when connected wired, and the other two work great either wired or wireless...