OK! I am reposting this in a new thread because its basically become a different problem than the original post entirely.

In my original post I needed to rebuild the kernel which solved the problem I posted about.

Now It appears I can connect with wlan0 but it isn't working. I know jack about network stuff so heres some of the output I get when I bring it up.

iwconfig:

wlan0 IEEE 802.11bg ESSID:"xxxxxxxx"
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.412 GHz Access Point: 00:21:29:CF:34:85
Bit Rate=1 Mb/s Tx-Power=20 dBm
Retry limit:7 RTS thrff Fragment thrff
Encryption key:XXXXXXXXXX
Power Managementff
Link Quality=67/70 Signal level=-43 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

ip addr

1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 16436 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN
link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
inet 127.0.0.1/8 scope host lo
inet6 ::1/128 scope host
valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
2: eth0: <NO-CARRIER,BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast state DOWN qlen 1000
link/ether 00:16:d4:02:e2:09 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
inet 192.168.1.104/24 brd 192.168.1.255 scope global eth0
inet6 fe80::216:d4ff:fe02:e209/64 scope link
valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
3: wlan0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc mq state UP qlen 1000
link/ether 00:14:a5:a3:ea:b7 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
inet 192.168.1.103/24 brd 192.168.1.255 scope global wlan0
inet6 fe80::214:a5ff:fea3:eab7/64 scope link tentative
valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
4: sit0: <NOARP> mtu 1480 qdisc noop state DOWN
link/sit 0.0.0.0 brd 0.0.0.0

I also tried installing dhcpcd and bringing it up with that instead. On bootup it gives the whole dhcpcd leasing address etc. and then it seems to come up like before but connect via firefox, ping, or ftp.

I get a message on the screen occasionally about unrecognized martian source from ip ..... I had this problem originally with eth0 but resolved by changing the logging in iptables. So I know its at least communicating with the router??

My concerns are, could it be a problem with the wep key?
And if the logging problem shows up with wlan0 not eth0 then are they using different firewalls?!?!??

I'm really at a loss, my goal is to eventually wipe this machine and put only my lfs build on it so this is the practice run and I want to learn enough to feel comfortable once I restart!

Thanks for the help!

At this stage, you're connected via wireless. 00:21:29:CF:34:85is the access point. Next you need dhcpcd or dhclient, which should give you an ip.

dhcpcd wlan0

Could you turn the security off and see if it will connect then, at least that would eliminate the wep key.

OK somebodies missing something then and maybe its me but I can get an IP provided by me statically or leased through dhcp YET I cant do a god d&mned thing in terms of outside connection, Im not askin for handouts, I'm googling like its my job, I just dont know what Ive done wrong... In my past experience that has meant that its been the smallest thing and I'm trying too hard to solve a small problem with a big solution.

And specifically to biz kid the ip addr output shows an ip address.

thanks for the help or suggestions

It sounds to me like you're connected all right. If ifconfig wlan0 returns an ip, you have done it. The next things to check are /etc/resolv.conf which should list dns servers. If you don't know what to use, try opendns.org 208.67.222.222 & 208.67.220.220. Some networks need you to use their dns servers to block unwanted stuff. Try these commands when you have an ip in the output of 'ifconfig wlan0'

ping -c2 208.67.222.222 # checks connectivity
ping -c2 www.google.com # checks dns

If both work, you should be able to open a browser and surf.