activating wlan0

hi im relativly new to fedora, iv installed FC4 on my toshiba staellite a20 labtop (dualbooting with windoze xp), iv been trying to get my netopia 3D reach pcmcia wireless g card running. i downloaded, compiled and installed the rt2500.ko beta driver for it and acually got it working yesterday.
But when i tried to activate it this today in System Settings > network it through the following error;
"rt2500 device wlan0 does not seem to be present, delaying initialization."

when i do "iwconfig" in the terminal it prints;
[root@localhost ~]# iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

sit0 no wireless extensions.

and for "iwconfig wlan0" in the terminal it prints;
[root@localhost Module]# iwconfig wlan0
wlan0 No such device

iv also tryed "modprobe -v rt2500" and then "ifconfig wlan0"
"wlan0: error fetching interface information: Device not found"

iv no idea whats up with it any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks

make an lsmod and paste the output

thanks for the advice, but i managed to get it up and working,
if anyone is having simaler problems here the solution;

1)in start/desktop menu go to System Settings > Network
2)log in as root
3)in devices select wireless connection and click edit
4)tick the box for "activate divice when computer starts"
5)exit and save changes
6)reboot
7)enjoy wireless computing

the module wasnt loaded at the begging

ok, my early conclusion that my wireless card was working has turned out to of been a bit premature.
when i boot my laptop the wireless card does not activate. to get it working again i have to go through the steps i outlined above;

1)in start/desktop menu go to System Settings > Network
2)log in as root
3)in devices select wireless connection and click edit
4)tick the box for "activate divice when computer starts"
5)exit and save changes
6)reboot

after restarting, the wireless card works fine (im using it right now) . . . utill the next time i boot that is.
i think the problem has something to do with the rt2500 driver i compiled
heres the output of "iwconfig";

[root@localhost ~]# iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

Warning: Driver for device wlan0 has been compiled with version 18
of Wireless Extension, while this program supports up to version 17.
Some things may be broken...

wlan0 RT2500 Wireless ESSID:"********************" Nickname:"localhost"
Mode:Managed Frequency=2.442 GHz Access Point: 00:0F:CC:23:B6:B0
Bit Rate=54 Mb/s
RTS thrff Fragment thrff
Encryption key:*************************************** Security mode:*********
Link Quality=94/100 Signal level=-28 dBm Noise level:-193 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

sit0 no wireless extensions.

so does anyone have any idea how to fix this and in the warning message in the output above what program is it actualy refering to when it says "while this program supports up to version 17"???

if you can give me any advice at all, ill be very greatfull.

if there is such a thing as a working wireless in linux then i have it working . . . .
i added the following lines to the "rc.local" file;

/sbin/wlanctl-ng wlan0 lnxreq_ifstate ifstate=enable
p2CnfPortType = 1

iv shutdown and booted twice and the card has started both times;
if anyone is experiancing similar problems follow the link below and check out post #9;

http://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...p?postid=910600