Here is a quick look at iwconfig:
IEEE 802.11g ESSID:"
your ssid here" Nickname:"whatever"
Mode:
Managed Frequency:
2.xxx GHz Access Point:
00:00:00:00:00:00
Bit Rate=54 Mb/s Tx-Power:25 dBm
RTS thr=2347 B Fragment thr=2346 B
Encryption key:
XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XX Securitymode:restricted
Power Management

ff
Link Quality:100/100 Signal level:-48 dBm Noise level:-256 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0
If the driver part goes well, iwconfig should give you an output similar to this. The parts in red determine whether or not your computer will have internet access. You are probably familiar with some of these if you have set up wireless before. Type the command:
man iwconfig
in a console to get help on how to configure each one, or just post back. If you are setup for dhcp it is usually as easy as:
dhcp wlan0
this is all I need to do. If you have some sort of encryption there is a bit more.
Good luck