Wireless Networking - general question about XP user account & logging in ...

Hi - I recently got a standard (Netgear WG602) wireless access point to plug into a LAN port on my old wired router, and a Netgear PC card (WG511) to plug into my laptop to allow wireless use of the laptop. Downloaded updated firmware for access point, and new drivers / software for the PC card.
No problems getting it all working, but there were a couple of usage problems that really reduced the usefulness of this solution and I wondered whether they were characteristic of WiFI networking in Windows XP, or specific to Netgear.

The first was that unlike my old wired network connection which goes live as far as the network is concerned once the PC has booted up to the XP Welcome screen (i.e. not requiring a user to log into a user account), this WiFi one I used required me to log into a user account to go live on the connection. More irritatingly, it was the last app to load and some system tray apps I use that require a network connection to another PC didn't like the absence of a network connection at the point they were becoming active. My question: is there any way to force the WiFi connection to be live before logging in of a user account?

The second was that the WiFi connection referred to above worked fine in any of the 4 user accounts (all Admin) but NOT if one was logged in already. It generated an error (supplicant error) if Fast User Switching had more than one account logged in. The workround was to log out of each user account before going into another, but the users on that laptop really like FUS! Is this a NetGear thing, a general WiFi thing or just a bug?

Any ideas on the above too would be gratefully appreciated. As things stand, the above two glitches, + the drop off in speed as I move away from the access point, means I might as well have got a couple of HomePlug powerline adaptors, which are slow but natively recognised and transparent!

Thanks in advance ...