Vista - usb adapter problem

hi all new here so go easy on me !!!!!
right! my hard drive went down the pan and a friend got me a new one with vista ultimate on(was on windows 2000xp before) ,whilst waiting to get the hard drive my wife got an acer netbook and after some time i sussed the password to connect it to the belkin wireless 54g router,however now i have the new vista ultimate installed in my pc i cannot connect to the router even though i type in the password used for the netbook it wont let me connectg saying it has to be a 5 or 10 digit password ,does ultimate allow use of belkin 54 or not is there anything that can or cant be done im at a loss ,im no geek on computers so speak slowly please guys/gals in plain english !!

im presuming its the usb adapter if so what can be done !!
many thanks,bruce.

Type in 192.168.2.1 into your browser then click on security on the left under wireless enter your password if you set one leave blank if you didn't then copy down the letters and number listed there. Then enter those into the passphrase with the caps lock on if needed and you should connect to your router.