Yes, the network connection is made through the USB. I followed the instructions to the letter, including when to plug the wireless adapter into the USB port, but there was one part when my computer deviated slightly from what the instructions said it would do. After installing the drivers, restarting the computer, etc., it said that when I plugged in the wireless adapter that windows would launch a New Hardware Wizard, thus leading me to follow a couple of additional steps to complete the installation. Contrary to this, after I plugged the device in, I just got a little bubble down by the system tray (I say "bubble" because it's one of those little, yellow windows that looks like a speech bubble from comic books being spoken by the system tray) saying that new hardware had been dectected, and then after a few moments, that little bubble was replaced by a new one stating that the new hardware had been successfully installed.
The next step, according to the instructions, is to click on the XP Networking Icon in the system tray, but as I said before, the main problem I'm encountering is that there is no XP Networking Icon, and I can't get it to appear. Ever. I even tried uninstalling everything for the wireless adapter, and then reinstalling it, and I've tried using my 2nd USB port instead of the first one, but the results are always the same.
So, any idea what might be stopping the XP Networking Icon from appearing when starting up the computer? Again, thank you to the people who have already replied to this thread to offer help, but unfortunately I'm still stuck in this jam.