I had a heck of a time getting my wireless card going. I was trying to
get a Linksys wireless card to work with a Linksys router. I read
tutorial after tutorial and entered all sorts of stuff into the terminal.
Nothing.....
I finally accidentally discovered how to make it work.
Down on the task bar is the dual monitor icon for making your network
go. I right clicked on it and both boxes for "Enable Network" and
"Enable Wireless" were checked. I unchecked them and then rechecked
"Enable Wireless". It started working immediately and has worked ever
since.

I did not have to configure it or anything else, it just started working

Your router shouldn't care what OS you're running, I'd be VERY
surprised if it did.
Your ISP probably wants to load a disk with a hacked browser and some
crapware, and it's just as well that you can't allow them to do it. I
had that with comcast.

Probably, you don't have the router set up to do DHCP, so your machine
isn't getting an IP address.
You can check this by booting into windows, and using your browser to
configure the router.
(see router docs for IP address and password etc)

Turn on DHCP in the router, and set your computers to use dynamic IP
(unless you have a reason not to) and that should take care of it.

Lets start with this: who is your ISP?
What make and model router do you have?