I... have a problem. I can't connect to the interweb on Ubuntu, but I can on the Vista part so I know it's working. I've read that connecting is hell on Ubuntu, and now I believe it. I've tried everything and it doesn't work. The 2Wire router was broken a few years ago, so I have to hardcode the IP of my laptop and old XP. My swanky new Vista machine connected automagically, so I figured it had been fixed. Maybe not... Does anyone have any help? I'm out of ideas. If you need more info let me know.

When you say you've tried "everything," can you give us a brief rundown of what you have tried (DHCP, static settings, et cetera)?

What does `sudo ifconfig -a` yield?

Mine's wireless, so I don't think ifconfig works. Iwconfig yields something like "Operation not supported". That's the closest I've come, I think, but I don't know how to get around it. I've figured out I have an Atheros card, so should I use Madwifi? I'm not exactly sure how to do that...

`iwconfig` will control your computer's wireless connectivity, but `ifconfig` will control your computer's IP traffic (the ability to send meaningful data) -- the two work hand-in-hand for wireless devices.

A quick Google search for 'Ubuntu Atheros' returns quite a few results, detailing many people's configurations on many versions of Ubuntu on many different devices. What make/model of laptop (I assume) do you have?

`sudo ifconfig -a` will return a list of your on-board networking devices, which will help make any followup more specific to your case (some systems have wlan0, ath0, or even eth1 for the wireless card).