I have a laptop running vista & linux. I can connect to router with vista, linux finds the router, asks for password but then doesn't connect. Although password is correct it just keeps asking for it repeatedly and refuses to connect.

Are you connecting via wireless or a wired connection? If wireless, try plugging in with a network cable to the router and then load linux. If it connects then there must be something wrong with the wireless connection and you'll have to look into that. You might also want to post this in the linux forum since the windows seems to connect just fine it occurs to me this is more likely to be a linux problem and less likely to be a network problem.