Wireless recognization problem

Hello,

My friend just installed his wireless USB device, it was working fine ( getting a signal from his office, where he has a wireless router). But when he put windows xp on, it kept saying that the cable was unplugged in ipconfig. So im guessing that it wasnt set to use the wireless? He then proceeded to put win2k back on but its still saying the cable is unplugged. wtf? It says the usb network adapter is installed and working properly, wtf?