Vista - "Connect to a Network" command not reponding‏

Hello,
I’m relatively new at this, so I’m hoping I’m posting in the right forum with the correct information. I have 1-year-old Dell Studio 15 laptop and have been having problems with my wireless connections. If I am hard-wired to my router (D-Link), I have regular online service. Without the hard wire, I cannot get online. The problem is that Vista will not respond at all to either the “connect to a network” or “set up a connection or network” commands. I do not get an error message or pop up box of any kind...just no response. I think my wireless card is working okay because I could open the utility program and see that it is finding my router and other networks in the area. Since the Connect to a Network command was working a little while ago, I tried a system restore, but that did not solve the problem.

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!