so i have the drivers and ndiswrapper installed per every tutorial on wireless device installation.
 
everything seems to be set, the driver installed nd the hardware recognized but dhclient cant pull an ip from my wireless router. router is ok, the other computers in my house are connected fine.
 
what could it be?

Most importantly, we need to know what card (and more to the point, what chipset on the card) you have.  If you don't know what chipset it has, either google around or tell us the card model and revision (sometimes refered to as the hardware or h/w version).
 
Using ndiswrapper should be avoided if there is a native driver for the wireless card as ndiswrapper is more complex and, as such, prone to weird behavior.
 
Another piece of pertinent info would be what version of Linux you're using, both the distro and the kernel version.

I am using a usb device, namely the MN-510 from Microsoft. I dont know what this means for chipset, but I scoured the internet for the driver, which could be found in the latest, downloadable version of MSBN software.
 
The .sys and .inf file were then retrieved from the installation.
 
This somewhat rudimentary wireless device surely will be missing as a native driver in the kernel or supplementary packages.
 
I am using the latest version of Ubuntu (6.06?) and the kernel that comes default with that. I believe its 2.6.15-23...
 
Thanks for the help.

Actually, my friend, you are quite lucky!  I did some research for you and the MN-510 has an Intersil 2.5 chipset, one of the best-supported (if not the best supported) wireless chips out there.
 
Here is a good ubuntu-specific guide for getting prism-based usb adapters up and going.  Before starting, I would remove the ndiswrapper stuff.
 
Basically, I would go ahead and install linux-wlan-ng and then modprobe prism2_usb.  Check the kernel messages with dmesg, edit the /etc/network/interfaces file dealing with the wireless interface, then try bringing up the network interface with ifconfig wlan0 up
 
Good luck and let us know if you have other questions.

Wow! Thanks so much for doing the research haha.
 
Well I removed everything that has to do with ndis and have installed the linux-wlan-ng package. and changed the mod file with modprobe
 
the only problem that i have is that they said the wep key has to be entered in hexidecimal in XX:XX:XX:XX:XX form?!?!?!?! I know that the wireless encryption key for my router but certainly NOT in hex form. Is that what they expect me to enter using network-admin?
 
I would just rather modify the file but again, I dont know how to enter the WEP!
 
thanks again

oh wait, i just realized that the WEP i entered is in hex format (0-9, A-F) haha.
 
Unfortunately, still not able to connect...:sigh:

I good restart did it Thanks a lot bmourning.  
 
I like linux a lot and I feel like i'm learning at a great pace. what sources would you recommend to get on the fast track to becoming an expert?

Awesome, it was likely just either a module that wasn't loade or the need to start a service.
 
The best places to get good information are the various different wiki's and forums especially Ubuntu's, Fedora's, SuSE's, and Gentoo's.  Great communities.
 
There are also some great introductory pieces presented like a lesson-per-sitting format that introduces the fundamentals and progresses to the higher-level stuff like shell scripting and other admin/power user tasks.  This is a fine place to start, but the user linux_0 has some other great sources for learning the basics.
 
Another great way to learn things (the way I got to where I am today) is to pick cool things that you want to setup and use on your system, then get it running on your system.  One such thing related to wireless stuff is getting the various "extra" functions of your wireless card working and then using something like Kismet or wireshark (previously called ethereal).  This makes you more familiar with the driver system of linux (builtin and kernel modules), the services model used (starting, stoping, restarting services, just a hint look around for articles about the /etc/init.d folder, or perhaps just look around it yourself ) as well as installing new software.  The result?  you get to see what wireless traffic is going on in the air around you!  
 
Of course, this is just one example, there are some many cool projects going on in the OSS world that there's no shortage of material.
 
The most important thing is to be persistant and don't get flustered too easily.  There are many people out there like myself who have some experience who don't mind helping out in the least, and there are tons of great articles and resources online.
 
Probably the best way to become an expert is to transition to the point where you are using Linux for your daily computing needs.  I only boot into Windows these days to play games.  Everything else I need can be done in Linux.  Familiarity with how things are done in Linux/BSD/Solaris/UNIX systems (both in the GUI and underneath) makes understanding once cryptic concepts and/or commands become lucid.
 
Well, I don't know if that answered your question per se, but I feel it's good enough advice to be worthwhile to post.  Cheers.

I am new to linux, but love the Kororaa with XGL live CD. But, I die without internet. I have a Linksys WMP54GX PCI adapter with SRX and cant seem to get it to work in kororaa. Any help is appreciated.

Unfortunately support for this card is spotty, read this thread I posted in a while back for more info