turns out its because my adapter is a rev 2. There is nothing on the box that will tell you what version you have. Look on the back of the adapter and if you see rev 2. Then you need to get another adapter. Perhaps the netgear fa120. Does anyone know of any revisions to the fa120? or do they all work?

huh never knew about the cd thing, but your right the rev 2 box doesn't have a picture of a cd. have you tired hooking the adapter up to your computer and makeing sure it works? If the 10mbps light is off perhaps that just means the adapter knows your using a 100 and not a 10.