Connecting XP laptop to airport express SUCCESS

Question

My partners Acer laptop running XP would connect and show a strong signal but would not allow internet connection with internet explorer.
After reading lots of posts and seeing (and trying for about 8 hours) about ten different answers...
This worked ,page 61 of
http://manuals.info.apple.com/en/DesigningAirPort_Networks_Using_AirPortUtility.pdf
Chapter 3 AirPort Network Designs 61
On a computer using Windows:
 Make sure the base station is connected to the Internet. The computers on your
AirPort network cannot connect to the Internet if your base station is not connected
to the Internet.
 Check your Internet connection using your computer. If you can’t connect with your
computer, the problem may be with your Internet connection.
 Right-click the wireless connection icon, and choose Status.
 Check to make sure that the computer has joined the AirPort network created by
your base station.
 Restart your computer. This renews the IP address you receive from the base station.
The IP addresses should be in the range of 10.0.1.2 to 10.0.1.200, 172.16.1.2 to
172.16.1.200, or 192.168.1.2 to 192.168.1.200 depending on the address scheme the base
station uses.
 If the base station is set up as a DHCP server, make sure the “Obtain an IP address
automatically” checkbox is selected in the General pane of Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)
Properties. Right-click the wireless connection icon and click Properties. Click Internet
Protocol (TCP/IP), and then click Properties
I did everything but I think the guts of it is
“Obtain an IP address
automatically” checkbox is selected in the General pane of Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)
Properties.
Good Luck

Answer 1

I had this same problem with my 2wire gateway when I switched to Mac. My roommate has XP, and two PC's with Linux. When the Mac was added to the network, it all went to ****. It has something to do with Apple's WEP configuration. I think. My roommate is the guru, not me. We set it up with WPA, and my MBP worked flawlessly,. Although XP and Linux could connect, they were both plagued by random drops and poor performance.
We tried the Linksys (IIRC) and it did the same thing.
To make a very long story short, we bought the Extreme draft-N and put it in WPA. Mandriva, Sabayon, XP and OS X are all able to connect to the internet and playing nice with each other (with a few exceptions)....