I am installing Debian Etch, downloaded this morning from the Debian site. This is being installed on a Dell C610 & a Dell TrueMobile 1350 internal card. The installer does correctly detect both the internal and wireless NIC. I downloaded the drivers from teh Dell web site.
After the install I do the following steps:
apt-get install ndiswrapper ndiswrapper-utils-1.9 wireless-tools
ndiswrapper -l
no drivers installed
ndiswrapper -i bcmwl5a.inf
installing bcmwl5 ...
forcing parameter IBSSGMode from 0 to 2
forcing parameter IBSSGMode from 0 to 2
forcing parameter IBSSGMode from 0 to 2
forcing parameter IBSSGMode from 0 to 2
forcing parameter IBSSGMode from 0 to 2
forcing parameter IBSSGMode from 0 to 2
forcing parameter IBSSGMode from 0 to 2
forcing parameter IBSSGMode from 0 to 2
forcing parameter IBSSGMode from 0 to 2
forcing parameter IBSSGMode from 0 to 2
{I have no idea the this mesage is, I have installed this on Sarge and Knoppix with no issues. I also get the3 same message is I install bcmwl5.inf}
ndiswrapper -l
bcmwl5a driver installed, hardware (14E4:4324) present (alternate driver: bcm43xx)
apt-get install ndiswrapper-source module-assistant
m-a prepare
m-a a-i ndiswrapper
modprobe ndiswrapper
{At this point everything appears to be working fine. No errors have come up}
Syslog looks like this:
Dec 13 11:19:59 c610 kernel: ndiswrapper version 1.28 loaded (preempt=no,smp=yes)
Dec 13 11:19:59 c610 kernel: usbcore: registered new driver ndiswrapper
However now the error comes up:
c610:/# iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

eth1 IEEE 802.11b/g ESSIDff/any Nickname:"Broadcom 4306"
Mode:Managed Access Point: Invalid
RTS thrff Fragment thrff
Encryption keyff
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

sit0 no wireless extensions.
There's no wlan0 and the last time I tried using eth1 nothing worked. What have I done wrong?

Try lsmod to see if the bcm43xx module is being loaded which will conflict with ndiswrapper. If its there modprobe -r bcm43xx and try ndiswrapper again.
If its the bcm4306 chipset, that is fully supported - just add firmware to make it work http://bcm43xx.berlios.de/ and is preferable to ndiswrapper in this case.

beagle2, is there a better way? that bit with bcm43xx-fwcutter that you gave me is not workign either. Here's what I get.

c610:~/rt2x00-cvs-2006121415# make install
Makefile:62: /lib/modules/2.6.18-3-686/build/.config: No such file or directory
make: *** No rule to make target `/lib/modules/2.6.18-3-686/build/.config'. Stop.

I"m not good at compling sw. Have only done 1 kernel. THe lsprobe does not show the ndiswrapper and does show the bcm43xx. Is there an easier way to use the bcm43xx?

Not really, either use ndiswrapper or the native driver. For now, as I suggested try to remove the bcm43xx module , modprobe -r bcm43xx then modprobe ndiswrapper and see how you get on. It may be easier for you to blacklist the bcm43xx from loading and use ndiswrapper.