Debian

Thanks, duly noted for the future. I ended up re-installing anyways, not so much that I didn't want to deal with the video driver, but I wanted to revisit the install, and try to see if the install would work with wireless. As far as I could tell, it wasn't so much recognizing the wireless that was the problem, rather it did not recognize the existence of a dhcp server on the linksys box. But I was able to manually configure a fixed ip/subnet/gateway etc., after adjusting the ip range on the router so as not to cause a conflict. Right now I'm working without a GUI, I'll stick with that for a while and see how far I can take it. At the moment I can ping to the outside world using a domain name, but I couldn't connect to a mirror during the install. So right now I am focusing on basic TCP/IP

Lots of fun, I needed something new to play with and stay out of the bar.

If some protocols work but not others on the same connection that still makes me suspect driver issues here.

When you say some protocols are you referring to the fact that DHCP didn't work but fixed IP did? hmm, I could see that, but I can tell you that I have been through a couple of installs, and at one point with the first install I had DHCP working on wireless after installing with a wired connection. It was only during the second install (the only wireless install) that DHCP on wireless didn't work. So I did a fixed ip and haven't bothered to change it.

So I guess you could say I never proved a cause for any of my problems, I just ended up going with one solution that worked without nailing down the other issues, which is unfortunate but I wanted to move on.

Perhaps, but wireless drivers that aren't completely mature can be ridiculously finicky. I've seen tutorials to get wireless working that included steps like "load this graphical wifi manager, quit it, and load it again, remove the module, reload it, and then it might work". Granted that was for broadcom and ndiswrapper. but out of everything I've tried I haven't found a wireless driver that works reliably and portably yet.