hi,
my dads wireless connection uses a wpa encryption password. he is using windows and i am using linux. I am on FC5. I am trying to get the password on there. i have a file called ifcfg-wlan0 that i created that has all of the conditions of my wireless configuration.

I added the line:
IWCONFIG="key xxxxxxxxxxxxxx"

but when i tried to connect. this is what was returned:
Error for wireless request "Set Encode" (8B2A) : Set failed on device wlan0 ; Invalid argument.

anyone who can help, it would be appreciated.

For wpa encryption, you need either Network Manager or wpa_supplicant.

Network Manager is by far the easiest to get going: yum install it, and then start it by running "/etc/init.d/NetworkManager start". You should then have an icon on your panel --if it is not-try the command: nm-applet --sm-disable. Click on it, and look for your Dad's ssid in the list, click on the ssid, and you will be prompted for a password, enter it, and you are good to go. To get it to run everytime you boot, go to System-->services and check the Network Manager box.

wpa_supplicant is not terribly difficult to set up, but it is not as elegant as Network Manager is at this point. Edit /etc/sysconfg/wpa_supplicant to indicate your wireless interface and driver. Then, edit /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf and change the following lines:
ssid="(your dad's ssid)"
key_mgmt=WPA_PSK
psk="xxxxxxxx"
Then go to system-->services and check the wpa_supplicant box.

sorry its been so long since i have posted back but im dont have a ton of time to work on this. i tried to use yum install to install NetworkManager when i did so i got this output:

Loading "installonlyn" plugin
Setting up Install Process
Setting up repositories
core
Cannot find a valid baseurl for repo: core
Error: Cannot find a valid baseurl for repo: core

I also tried to just run it to see if it was already installed because i thought i saw something with that name when i used the nm-applet --sm-disable it gave me:

bash: nm-applet: command not found

i then tried nm -applet --sm-disable and i received:

nm: --sm-disable: invalid radix