Newbie question, trying to connect to 2WIRE Homeportal with USB netgear MA101 (I know its stupid, but I don't want eth cables running everywhere...)

I'm running Red Hat 8.0, used the GPLed driver and was able to compile the driver with no errors (plenty of warnings). It looks like the driver is recognized, when I type $iwconfig I get something like this (I had to copy
it on my notebook in scrawl- no printer ;0 ):

eth0 Atmel USB503A ESSID ""
Mode Managed Channel: 10 Access Prot: <lots of zeros>
Bit Rate
RTS thr 2347 Frg thr- 234613
Encryption key 0000-0000-00 Encryption mode Restricted
Encryption: Open
Link quality 52 Signal level 75 Noise level 0
RX nwid: 0 Rx invol crypt 0 RX in grg -105207
Tx excessive retries -1052027184 Invalid misc: 0
missed beacon: 0

The funny thing is I set the ESSID, encryption key, and mode with iwconfig it reverts back to the innitial settings in most fields when I type iwconfig again.

I tried continuing with the installation as described here:
atmelwlandriver.sourceforge.net/howto/howto.html

by typing $dhclient

but it didn't work, gave me an error that ended with
"no working leases inputs database... sleeping"

I then tried configuring with Red Hats' GUI systemsettings->network app but this didn't work either. The wireless device would not activate.

These same ESSID, channel, AWAP Key, and Mode work when I am running my windows partition, so I know the HomePortal and MA101 is working under windows.

Other possible relevant information: running AMD athlon, which for some reason uses usb-ochi rather then usb-uchi...

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated,
Thanks!
Henry