P205-S6237 Driving me Crazy... Please help me

Hello everyone,

This is my first post here and I did search everywhere before I decided to post.

I recently bought a Toshiba Satellite P205-S6237 that originally came with windows vista which I don't like neither want for now as half of the programs I use and own are non compatible yet.

So I did install the windows XP Professional SP2 and after a while I managed to get all the drivers and have everything set up. Windows is updated up to to the very last patch as of today...

Now I can go on line wired but I can't get online wireless... this model came with the atheros AR5BXB61 AKA AR500EG and I found the driver which was difficult from another web site as some models uses the same chip. (Driver is ar5211.sys and net5211.inf)

My problem is that the wireless networks available are detected but I can't connect and shows the upsetting "limited or no connectivity" sign and that's it... Then I tried a brand new belkin USB adapter and the exact same thing happened.... It did happened with multiple routers and I don't know what else to try. I did set up a fixed IP on the wireless connection (including subnet mask, default gateway, dns servers etc) and then it connects and says excellent signal but it doesn't get internet and when I try to login to the router I can't so by using a fixed IP I only get the Icon that says it's connected but nothing else...

I am really challenged at this point and I refuse to believe that the only solution would be to switch back to vista which is the only os supported by the Toshiba website. I understand that there is Marketing and Market reason to not provide support for XP anymore in new models but it is still too soon and I paid a lot of money for this laptop and I would like it to work on my terms as much as possible...

Any help or pointers will be highly appreciated.