Hi guys, this is my first time working with linus, so please be gentle. I can't seem to connect to the internet, I don't think my driver was installed. It's a IBM R51, with the Intel Pro/Wirelles 3300BG card.

when I typed sudo lshw -C network, it comes up with:
description: Wireless Interface
product: Pro/Wireless 2200BG
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 2
bus info: pci@02:02.0
logical name: eth0
version: 05
serial: 00:12:f0:d3:c9:be
width: 32 bits
clock: 33mhz
capabilities: bus_master cap_list ethernet physical wireless
configuration: broadcast=yes driver-ipw3300 driverversion=1.1.1 firmware:ABG:9.0.2.6 (Mar 22 2005) link: no multicast-yes wireless=unassociated
resources: iomemory: d0200000-d0200fff irq:11

When I type- sudo iwconfig
it lists lo, irda0, eth0, and sit0 with "no wireless extensions"

What steps are needed now to get the proper drivers loaded? Thanks a lot. -Ken

So far, it looks like Ubuntu may be the best distro for you. Next computer or wireless card you get, demand Linux support. Ubuntu was the first that I tried with "out of the box support" for the PRO/Wireless 2200BG built into my laptop.
The problem is the closed source drivers/api these card manufactures are putting out.
Try Ubuntu and get that wireless working. Ubuntu is Debian based and comes with the wrapper needed to make it happen.

Note:
Ubuntu host and VMware workstation on it will allow you to learn any Linux/BSD (The more RAM/HDD space the better!)

Good Luck!