Ok well that did something....
ifconfig eth0 down
iwconfig eth1
eth1 IEEE 802.11-DS ESSID:"NETGEAR" Nickname:"thinker"
Mode:Managed Bit Rate=1 Mb/s
RTS thr=2346 B Fragment thr

ff
Encryption key

ff
Power Management

ff
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
iwconfig eth1 essid "NETGEAR"
(no encription key, iwconfig output said encription key=off)
ifconfig eth1 IP up (used inet address from ifconfig)
route add default gw IP
and I got in response to the last line:
SIOCADDRT: Network is down
when I typed ping
www.google.com -c 3 it thought for about 30 seconds and then told me unknown host.
I checked my current wireless settings and they are that SSID with disabled security. Getting closer I can feel it! Thanks so far!