gigafast is lying to you -- simple as that.  what happens when you plug the usb adapter in?  do you hear anything?  does it light up?  does it appear in device manager?

Nothing happens. I run the software that was included with the USB Adapter and I get the message "network interface might be disabled or removed". I have tried unplugging and replugging two or three times as well as rebooting the machine. In addition, other devices do work in the USB ports.

Thanks much for replying.

Jan.

can you check in device manager (right click my computer, click properties, click the hardware tab and click device manager).  insert the usb device and see if it appears under network or if it appears as an unknown device.  if it appears as neither, there's a very good change the the device is broken -- in which case you will need to call tech support again and hope you don't get another idiot -- say it's not a dell if that helps

After going into the device manager, I plugged the USB adapter in again and lo and behold a connection appeared in the lower right tab and is now working. There was nothing there previously.

Thanks you loads for your assistance. What do you think sparked it into recognizing the device?

Again, thanks a lot!!!!

not a clue ... unless it wasn't plugged in fully