I was able to configure my network card to use my router using the SSID.
When I do a iwconfig, I can see the MAC address from the router so I know that the card did communicate with the router.
I configured a static IP with my router as default gateway.
I can ping the local IP but I can't ping my gateway (router)
Not sure what the next step would be in troubleshooting that problem.

can anyone help me?

is
route -n
the routers address?
does
cat /etc/resolv.conf
show the router?

don't have the laptop with me right now so I can't check on route -n but I'll do so tonight

As for the resolv.conf, I have only 2 lines with nameservers entries.
What is the format for the router entry in this file?

It should show up as the nameserver if it is the default gateway.

NOTE: I'm not questioning your suggestion but trying to understand it ...
so, I should add the following line to my resolv.conf?:
nameserver 192.168.1.1

If i defined a static IP for my laptop and try to ping my gateway (router) by IP, how is adding if as a nameserver going to solve the problem?

Thanks for helping me understand better wireless networking in Linux

An example of a DNS entry in resolv.conf is:
nameserver 192.168.1.1

Hello,

Please correct me if I am wrong but it was my understanding that the resolv.conf was used for setting the ip address of the DNS server. He should not required the an ip in this file to ping his router.
What was the output from the wiconfig command?

Thanks Luger for jumping in... I don't have access to the laptop right now but I'll post the results of iwconfig when I get home in a few hours.

As a side note, I've been trying to find network-admin to help me in my troubleshooting but I can't find that package anywhere... do you have any idea where I could get it from? (using Debian)

Thanks again

here is the result of route -n

Destination Gateway Genmask Flags Metric Ref Use Iface
192.168.1.0 0.0.0.0 255.255.255.0 U 0 0 0 wlan0
0.0.0.0 192.168.1.1 0.0.0.0 UG 0 0 0 wlan0

here are the results of iwconfig:

wlan0 Auto ESSID:"mynetwork"
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.437GHz Access Point: 00:01:02:03:04:05
Bit Rate:54Mb/s
Encryption keyff
Power Managementff
Link Quality:45/100 Signal level:-58 dBm Noise level:-256 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

i changed the mac address and the ssid

enter this command and post the results.

"wilist wlan0 scan"

This will scan for your router. Is should give you a reply. and what do you get from ipconfig?

the iwlist wlan0 scan returns the following results for my router:
Cell 05 - Address: 00:0F:661:2A:72
ESSID:"MyRouter"
Protocol:IEEE 802.11g
Mode:Managed
Frequency:2.437 GHz (Channel 6)
QUality:0/100 Signal level:-17 dBm Noise Level:-256 dBm
Encryption keyff
Bit Rate:1 Mb/s
Bit Rate:2 Mb/s
Bit Rate:5.5 Mb/s
Bit Rate:11 Mb/s
Bit Rate:18 Mb/s
Bit Rate:24 Mb/s
Bit Rate:36 Mb/s
Bit Rate:54 Mb/s
Extra:bcn_int=100
Extra:atim=0

What i noticed is that the MAC address ends in 72 with the scan but the actual MAC address ends in 71. The rest of the address is the same. Also, the Quality is 0/100 which is weird because the router and the laptop seat on the same desk. If I do a iwconfig after I assigned teh ESSID to my card, it shows 45/100 as Link Quality.