Wireless CRAP

In my home I have a Netgear wireless router. It uses the 802.11b standard.
In my HP laptop I've installed an el-cheapo Proxim 802.11b PCMCIA card. This
setup works and works well.

I just recieved an SMC 802.11a access point, which I can connect to through
the ethernet port and configure. I also recieved an SMC 2735W 802.11a PCMCIA
card and a DLink DWL-AB650 802.11a/b dual frequency PCMCIA card. I'm having
trouble with these three items...

First, the SMC access point. Plug it all in and connect to my laptop. After
15 minutes of headscratching I realize that you MUST use a turnover cable
between the laptop and ethernet port on the WAP to get the link light on.
Once I do this I can get into the WAP and configure it. At this point it's
VERY basic with as much security turned OFF as I can...

Now, the SMC 802.11a PCMCIA card... I followed the instructions to the
letter. Stuck it into my XP Pro laptop and when new hardware was found I
steered it to the drivers on the install CD. It gets 90% done and the lights
on the card start flashing as if it were looking for a network and the whole
laptop jams solid... it will stay like this forever if I let it. I tug the
card out and the laptop goes on as if nothing had happened. It says it's
finished installing the device. Of course without being plugged in, it
doesn't appear in the device mangler... I plug it back in and FREEZE -
laptop stops dead. Keyboard doesn't work, C-A-D doesn't work, nothing. Tug
the card out and all my keypresses go as if the machine hadn't stopped at
all. Email to SMC and toss this crap in the corner...

DLink card this time. As per instructions, I install the driver before
inserting the card. All goes well. I stick in the card. All goes well. Go
into the configuration for the card and it doesn't detect my 802.11b router
or the 802.11a WAP. I go into the configuration and make sure the SSID
matches what I put into the WAP as well as the WEP key... still nothing.
Signal strength shows nothing. During my fiddling I did get it to see the
802.11a WAP but it refused to connect to it. Now it doesn't see anything.

DAMN I hate this crap. I have no problem getting my old 802.11b cheapo card
working 100 feet away from my router, but I can't get any of the 11a stuff
to work even at 10 feet away.

....so... Can anyone tell me just which direction I should slash my wrists or
how I can get this stuff working.

All the latest drivers and all the latest firmware is in use.

Thx!