if your card is natively supported type ;
iwconfig
iwlist scanning — should also show you the wireless networks that are in range (will work if driver is loaded)
you should see wlan0 if all is good; (grab your wireless details)
iwconfig wlan0 mode managed (should already be in this mode)
there are some cool options here like “secondary” mode which the node acts as a backup master/repeater. “Repeater” – the node forwards packets between other wire-less nodes
iwconfig wlan0 channel 6 – sets wireless to channel to 6
iwconfig wlan0 essid dwireless – sets ssid to “dwireless”
K – now it gets interesting… iwconfig doesn’t support wpa2 psk out of the bag.
http://hostap.epitest.fi/wpa_supplicant/ – you want to get your hands on wpa_supplicant or similar depending on your distro. This is a good tutorial on getting it all up and running (for ubuntu, but works on other distros) http://ph.ubuntuforums.com/showthread.php?t=571188 similar one here http://www.varesano.net/blog/fabio/wpap … no+ipw2100
If you have the Asus wireless card like i did it is best to use the ndis wrapper. The native drivers do NOT work, this is even though the native driver will seem to work – detects card, and can browse the current local wireless networks. Unfortunately it cannot actually join any network (even the unencrypted ones)
do NOT just type dhclient unless you want all adapters to renew their IP’s…. ensure that you also specify the adapter.