From complete and utter Linux newbie:
I am trying to install a 3com USB dongle ref:3crusb10075 onto my laptop (according to google it should work fine). PClinuxos recognizes it and installs the zd1211rw driver but still cannot connect to the wifi network. The same computer can connect via a network card and cable direct to the router, and i have another windows machine with the same dongle which can also connect to the wifi network. The only thing that I can see different is the driver is tagged as being USB2.0, this machine only has 1.2 - however this did not appear to be a problem for the windows machine, which is the same. Can someone please point me in the right direction.
Thanks
Will

I have an airlink dongle with the same chipset. After the regular zd1211 driver in Mepis wouldn't work, I compiled the newest version with the recommended fixes and it was still extremely flakey. I could connect maybe one out of 6 boots and lost connection after a few minutes.

I finally blacklisted the native driver and used ndiswrapper with the Windows 2000 drivers from the install CD. That works fine.

To blacklist the native driver, open the file /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist as root and add the line:

blacklist zd1211rw

I don't know if ndiswrapper is installed by default in PCLinuxOS. If it isn't grab it from the package manager.

Find the correct driver folder on the install disk from 3com and copy it to your home folder.

Go to the folder where the .inf and sys files from that CD now live and open a Konsole window there by hitting F4.

Add the windows drivers (assuming the .inf file is named zd1211bu.inf as mine was - it probably won't be, use the name you see) to ndiswrapper by using:
ndiswrapper -i zd1211bu.inf

The command ndiswrapper -l should show you if it installed and if the hardware is now detected. If it is use:
rmmod ndiswrapper
modprobe ndiswrapper
to reload ndiswrapper with the new driver. Now you should be able to connect.

Good Luck!