We finally resolved the problem
by
1. Disabling the firewalls & wireless card
-In Vista, Windows firewall with Advanced Security has 3 separate firewalls
-I disabled not only the radio, but also the card itself in the device manager.
2. Formatting the cRIO
3. Re-installing the NI-CRIO 4.2.1? in MAX
4. Connecting to the cRIO via the DS, we had been connecting directly to the cRIO via a crossover cable for a while.
-Don't know if that affected anything, but it finally worked that way.