being activated and resolving an ip address are two different things.

ifconfig

and see if any device has an ip address. if you dont, then run

sudo dhclient

then it will ask for your root password. you should get an ip address for which ever device can receive one.

Thanks for the info. I got the following running ifconfig. I'm not sure exactly what I'm looking for. I'm new to this OS and a long way from understanding the particulars.Here is what I have so far: lo Link encap: Local Loopback inet address; 127.0.01 Mask 255.0.0.0 inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope: Host UP LOOKBACK RUNNING MTU: 16436 Metric Rx packets:5 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0 Tx packets:5 errors:0 drooped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0 collision:0 txqueuelen:0 Rxbytes:272 (272.0 b) Txbytes 272 (272.0 b) wifi0 -00 Link encap: UNSPEC HWaddr 00-02-8A-AD-D0-92-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00 UP Broadcast RUNNING MULTICAST MTU 2312 METRIC:1 Rx packets:0 errors:1191 dropped:0overruns:0 frame:1191 tx packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0 collision:0 txqueuelen:100 Rx bytes:0 (0.0b) Tx bytes: 0(o.ob) Interrupt:5 Base address: 0ex800 There isn't anything here that is remotely consistent with the router/gateway LAN IP address or subnetmask.Again thanks in advance for any help

first off, next time you post something, make sure that "Automatically convert carriage returns to HTML line breaks" is checked. it is located right above the "Submit Post" button.

now, on to the nitty gritty. the line...

"Link encap: UNSPEC" means that the nic was detected, but has no idea what it is and therefore cant load the proper drivers. i would need to know what wireless card you have in order to help you.

First sorry about the post's format error and thanks for getting back to me.
Fromm what I can gather the wireless card (internal) is Intel PRO/Wireless 2100 3B Mini PCI adapter. The network board is 3com Corp device 3c905c TX/TX [Tornado]. Hope this helps.

First sorry about the post's format error and thanks for getting back to me.
From what I can gather the wireless card (internal) is Intel PRO/Wireless 2100 3B Mini PCI adapter. The network board is 3com Corp device 3c905c TX/TX [Tornado]. Hope this helps.

for your wireless card, just download, compile and install the ipw2100 drivers found here.

http://ipw2100.sourceforge.net/

that should be all you need to get it working (oh, and the wireless tools, but you should already have those installed).