Ok, I've got my wireless sort of working, I'm using a wgusb54 with open source drivers (the RT2X00 drivers). Here is my iw config, and my if config:
[mythtv@localhost ~]$ /sbin/iwconfig eth1
eth1 IEEE 802.11bg ESSID:"Mantrout" Nickname:"localhost.localdomain"
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.437 GHz Access Point: 00:0C:41:49:F0:E8
Bit Rate:11 Mb/s Tx-Power:100 Sensitivity=10/0
RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
Link Quality:0 Signal level:0 Noise level:0
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

eth1 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:12:17:75:74:E9
inet addr:192.168.1.45 Bcast:255.255.255.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:173 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:202 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:26531 (25.9 KiB) TX bytes:16438 (16.0 KiB)

So far so good... I'm not using encryption at the moment to remove one possible variable.

I can dig/host/dns lookup a site:

dig www.slashdot.org

; <<>> DiG 9.3.1 <<>> www.slashdot.org
;; global options: printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 42749
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 5, ADDITIONAL: 5

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;www.slashdot.org. IN A

;; ANSWER SECTION:
www.slashdot.org. 3740 IN A 66.35.250.151

;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
slashdot.org. 5394 IN NS ns2.vasoftware.com.
slashdot.org. 5394 IN NS ns3.vasoftware.com.
slashdot.org. 5394 IN NS ns1.ostg.com.
slashdot.org. 5394 IN NS ns1.vasoftware.com.
slashdot.org. 5394 IN NS ns2.ostg.com.

;; ADDITIONAL SECTION:
ns1.ostg.com. 106090 IN A 66.35.250.10
ns1.vasoftware.com. 106090 IN A 12.152.184.135
ns2.ostg.com. 106090 IN A 66.35.250.11
ns2.vasoftware.com. 106090 IN A 12.152.184.136
ns3.vasoftware.com. 106090 IN A 66.35.250.12

;; Query time: 39 msec
;; SERVER: 192.168.1.9#53(192.168.1.9)
;; WHEN: Sat Jan 28 22:49:16 2006
;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 239

I can not however ping it...
[mythtv@localhost ~]$ ping -c 5 www.slashdot.org
PING www.slashdot.org (66.35.250.151) 56(84) bytes of data.

--- www.slashdot.org ping statistics ---
5 packets transmitted, 0 received, 100% packet loss, time 3999ms

But wait... can I??
[mythtv@localhost ~]$ ping -c 5 www.google.com
PING www.l.google.com (216.239.37.104) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 216.239.37.104: icmp_seq=0 ttl=246 time=33.5 ms
64 bytes from 216.239.37.104: icmp_seq=1 ttl=245 time=33.9 ms
64 bytes from 216.239.37.104: icmp_seq=2 ttl=246 time=33.6 ms
64 bytes from 216.239.37.104: icmp_seq=3 ttl=246 time=33.8 ms
64 bytes from 216.239.37.104: icmp_seq=4 ttl=245 time=34.4 ms

--- www.l.google.com ping statistics ---
5 packets transmitted, 5 received, 0% packet loss, time 23087ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 33.546/33.895/34.470/0.396 ms, pipe 2

If I fire up the web browser, I can search in google and the results pop right up, if I try to go to another site, it takes forever, and usually times out. I've turned off ipv6 in firefox, as I had read in a different thread that people had success with this, but it dosen't seem to be my problem. Does anybody have any clue? I've been screwing around with this for about a month now... it kills me to have to drag a ethernet cable into my livingroom, download stuff, and then hide my shame.... Thanks to anyone who can help.

The ping issue you're suggesting is unrelated. I expect you'll find that that no one is able to ping slashdot. Many servers are simply configured not to respond to pings in a manner to prevent DoS attacks etc.

Can you please provide more explanation of the problem then? If I understand correctly you are able to reach one site in firefox but a second fails... does it matter what the first or subsequent sites are? meaning can you reach the sites which you're unable to occasionaly but if on the first attempt?

I would check if you're using the correct DNS servers for your ISP (or IT dept.) see /etc/resolv.conf

Hope this helps!
cheers

Well, when I say google comes up, I should qualify that by saying my results come up, but not any of the images... It seems like I can bring up simple text sites, but anything complex (anything with images really) it just slows to a crawl. Sounding like a DNS problem? My /etc/resolv.conf is set through the dhcp-script, to 192.168.1.9, which is my router, that in theory is serving me dns info. It seems to be serving my windows boxen just fine, granted they are on hardline ethernet. Which brings me to a potential reason, when I fire up the little KDE wireless tool it shows my network at a signal strength of 0, but I find that very hard to believe as the access point and receiver are all of 15 feet apart, with 1 non-thick wall between them. Plus, if it truly were 0 signal strength, I would most likely get nothing, as opposed to fast loading text and zero images. Anyways, should I be setting my DNS directly to my ISP's DNS to be safe? If so, how can I do that and not have it overwritten by DHCP? Thanks again for your help!
-Andy T

no leaving it as your router addr is fine since you're using DHCP.

You're problem does appear more like a signal strength/bandwidth problem that a DNS/resolution problem. I would suggest that you re-post a question to address that.