Can't get b of netgear dual band WAB102 to connect

I have a laptop with a PCMCIA 802.11a card and it connects to the "a"
side of the dual band netgear wab102 I just got today.

The laptop has a minipci 802.11b card and I can't get that to connect to
the "b" side.

I also have a Sony Clie with a wifi card (802.11b of course) and it
doesn't connect either.

I can get an ad hoc connection between the laptop and the clie, so it
would seem that those pieces of hardware work. (I've never tested either
on a wan known to work).

The evidence would seem to be that the netgear 802.11b isn't functioning
properly. I don't see anything wrong in the set up (much of it identical
to the 802.11a settings). I've tried without wep, without authentication.

I guess I'll call netgear.

Any thoughts as to why one half works and the other half doesn't?

John