• First make sure your card is working and that you can see your wireless network.
• # iwlist wlan0 scan  This should bring back a list of available access points. If you can't see your's, you may need to set the network name first before you can list it.  Also, make sure your router is plugged in and ready to broadcast.
• # iwconfig wlan0 essid ESSID  Obviously replacing ESSID with your own. Now "iwlist wlan0 scan" should return your network. You may still encounter problems if your wireless router doesn't broadcast SSIDs or you may need to set your operating mode to match what was returned by iwlist, normally it's "Managed".
• # iwconfig wlan0 mode Managed  If you use WEP then you can set the key with:
• # iwconfig wlan0 key restricted XXXXXXXX  where XXXXXXXX is your key. Make sure you have set your essid correctly and if you are using DHCP on the router then you should be able to bring the interface up with:
• # dhclient wlan0
• or
• # dhcpcd wlan0  Otherwise you will need to set your IP, DNS, etc. manually:
• # ifconfig wlan0 192.168.0.123  (Where 192.168.0.123 is the IP you want to assign)
  
• # ifconfig wlan0 up
• You will also need to set your default gateway and add DNS servers into /etc/resolv.conf, eg
• # route add -net default gw 192.168.0.1 netmask 0.0.0.0 metric 1  (Where 192.168.0.1 is your router's address)
  
• An example of how the /etc/resolv.conf should look is:  nameserver 192.168.0.1 (this is located after the # signs on the first blank line)

I can ping my router, but I cant get onto the internet?

• If you find everything is ok but you can't connect to the internet try issuing a "route" command WITH the quotes included this time.  If you notice that the last line does not have a gateway ip address and does not reference the wlan0 interface try this:

  route add default gateway 192.168.0.1

  in my case the router's ip address is 192.168.0.1, but it might be something like 10.0.0.1 on your setup

• If you still can't get onto the internet but you can ping your router (ex. "ping 192.168.0.1" minus the quotes) see if the file /etc/resolv.conf exists, if not then you won't be able to resolve ip addresses, make a resolv.conf like so... Check you can ping you router, the ip address will vary on different routers, but it's generally either 192.168.0.1 or 10.0.0.1

  ping 192.168.0.1

  Use your favorite text editor and insert the following line into /etc/resolv.conf

  nameserver 192.168.0.1

  You should now be able to ping stuff on the internet, try going somewhere in a browser too:

  ping ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net

• 1.  The command "ifup wlan0" (some distributions may use "eth1") as root and minus the quotes will bring up your wireless interface.  This will tell us if your card is running DHCP.  If you can't use the dhcp feature, make sure you have the dhcp packages installed.  However, you can try setting a static ip and DNS in your configuration utility.

• 2.  If you are using a laptop, try pressing the "Fn" key with "F2" to ensure your laptop is transmitting wirelessly.  (it should have a light that goes on or off)

• 3.  If you are setting up your connection with WEP or a firewall, try turning them off to see if you can make your wireless work first.  Then add them later.  Setting the security mode to "Open" allows others to see the AP, but it uses MAC filtering I believe to sort out who can access the router.  This can also be helping in getting your wireless to see the router.