Dont feel helpless. Linux and wireless seem to be a hit and miss. I set
up ThinkPads with Ubuntu on them all the time and then this week I had
trouble getting my own to work.

Im going to tell you what I do on mine so you see if this works for you.

I have a SBG900 Motorola cable/modem with wireless router built in. For
security I have a 26hex id and filter only allowed MAC's. Machines are
assigned IP via DHCP.

On the laptop up in the top right there is a icon that looks like two
computers. Its your network icon. Click it once and chose Manual and put
in your password. Now, click on your wireless tab. Put in your id and
chose open or shared under security and then click ok. It took a few
seconds for it to get an address for some reason. On XP Pro it takes
about 5 seconds total to connect and be on my way but with Ubuntu it
took about 12.

I spoke to someone on Chat this week and they had trouble with their
wireless card not working. Yesterday I was working with a laptop with a
Netgear WG511 and it worked great. This girl swears by them.

If you are setting up your pc with a static ip, you have to put in the
gateway address. If your ip is 192.168.0.3 and your modem is
192.168.0.2, it is likely 192.68.0.1, which is the same as your DHCP
server.