wifi adapter won't enable?

(W7 home premium)

My friend has bought a new wifi adapter - I don't think it will be any
better than her present one, but never mind that for now. It's an Edimax
nano, basically a USB plug with a very little extra on it.

I plugged it in, and when Windows for some reason couldn't load a
driver, I used the mini-CD, and after pointing the OS at the right
folder thereon, a driver loaded and seems to work.

On the screen in control panel (networks or something like that) that
shows two things - the ethernet cable and the wifi adapter - it shows as
something like wireless network 7, and disabled. If I right-click, a
dropdown appears which includes Enable, so I click on that; a small
window opens saying Enabling, then Enabled, then disappears - but the
main one-of-two display (the other being the ethernet cable) still shows
it as Disabled. No wifi networks are shown.

If I plug back in the old wifi dongle, it shows on that screen as two
things, numbered 5 and 6, and one of them (I forget which) shows the
name of the SSID where the other one shows as Disabled, and indeed we
have an internet connection. If I plug _both_ in, they show up as 5, 6,
and 7, with one of 5 and 6 showing the SSID and providing a connection,
the other (new one) showing as 7 and Disabled - in other words, the two
wifi adapters seem to be completely independent of whether the other one
is plugged in or not - one appearing as 5 and 6 and giving us a
connection, one appearing as 7 and not being enable-able.

I've tried safe mode (with networking), snoozing ZoneAlarm's firewall
and other function for five minutes, and turning off Panda, all to no
avail - ditto changing some service someone suggested from Manual to
automatic start, and starting it (one that begins with "WLAN ...").

We had a garbled reply from Edimax that suggested the firewall offing,
and (really just by copying an email between two other users) making
sure the service was enabled.

In summary: I _think_ the new wifi adapter has a driver the OS is happy
with, but it isn't seeing any networks, probably because it can't be
changed from Disabled, though a popup says "Enabling ... Enabled".
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

Experience is that marvelous thing that enables you to recognize a mistake when
you make it again. -Franklin P. Jones