What wireless card do you have in your computer?

Netgear wg311 v2..................

Are you using WEP or WPA. WPA does work in the Windows driver.

If Ubuntu is still shipping the "plain driver", only WEP is supported.
acx100.sourceforge.net/.../Ubuntu

WPA does work in the Windows driver.

That cards should run right out of the box if running Feisty
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/HardwareSupportComponentsWirelessNetworkCardsN\
etgear?highlight=%28Netgear%29

You'll have to provide more information before anyone can help you.

1. Wireless hardware in desktop; chipset, vendor & etc.

2. Is the wireless network wide open or is it secured using WEP, WPA, or WPA2.

3. Is your desktop set to accept a static or dynamic IP?

4. Are you using Network Manager?

Anyway, describe your system for us!

I hate to sound so helpless, I am totally lost with Ubuntu and wireless.
I have Netgear WG111v2 that I have used to connect to my home network
on a Windows machine. My network is WEP and static IP. I use MAC
address also for access, but as I mentioned the adapter has connected
using my Windows laptop. In Ubuntu, I don't know where Network Manager
is, I don't see any activity on the adapter. I see the adapter in
Network Setup dialog. It is the only one active and I have set the IP
to the same one that I used for the Windows test. I don't put anything
in the gateway window. Should I? I tried Ubuntu 7.? and went to 6.1
also just in case. I plead ignorance, the device manager sees and
identifies the WG111v2 on the USB port. As for installing drivers and
other settings, I don't know the first step........
Any help??

Alternatively if you don't get wireless working. I'm using
powerline/homeplug - while not being as portable as wireless does have
advantages with range and no problems with thick house walls. It's just
plug in and go! I decided not to go down the wireless route. I also use
several machines and didn't want to bother with pci cards for each machine.

Just thought i'd mention it - as no one has so far to my knowledge.