I have installed the driver for my wireless card (using driverloader)
It connected for a couple minutes but then disconnected
There was a wireless icon in the system tray, but it is no longer there.
How do I get it back?

I think i still have some configuring to do, in particular the ESSID.
Do i need to set it? If so how do i set it and what to set it to?

# iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

wlan0 IEEE 802.11g ESSID:"" Nickname:"unknown"
Mode:Managed Bit Rate=54 Mb/s Tx-Power:25 dBm
RTS thr: off Fragment thr: off
Encryption key: off
Power Management: off
Link Quality:0 Signal level:0 Noise level:0
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0
---

OpenSuSE 10.1 Turion 64 bit on an HP Pavilion dv5115nr
Broadcom Corporation BCM4318 [AirForce One 54g] 802.11g Wireless LAN Controller (rev 02)

ESSID is the name of the wireless network. For example, if you plugged in a Linksys WRT54G wireless router somewhere, the default ESSID is "linksys". Generally these are changed and/or not broadcast for security reasons. Ask the network admin what the ESSID is.

I am the network admin :}

This wireless connection will be used in 2 places:

- My home network (DSL connection, static IP, with all machines using NAT)
I have an ActionTec modem/router. So I tried "actiontec", but that doesn't connect.

- Internet cafes. Does one then need to know the name of the network to connect to it?

At home, I would consult the documentation. Or if the router has a config page (192.168.1.1 or the like) that you use to set it up, check there for the ESSID. That certainly is a reasonable guess, but if you're the admin, you should find out anyway.

Additionally, for you home network security, you should change it from the default ESSID and should also disable broadcasting the ESSID. Change the default password of the router as well. Once you get it all up and running, you might look into WPA encryption keys and limiting connections by MAC address. And physically locate the router as close to the middle of your house as possible. Unless you don't care if someone might leach your connection without your permission. My brother lived in an apartment and couldn't figure out why his network was so slow until I audited his network and found a neighbor was hosting a Warez site on his connection...

At random internet cafes they usually broadcast their ESSID (your connection gui should list available networks in your area). If not, ask the clerk. Sorry I can't be of any more help, but I don't have any linux wireless clients for home, just my wife's work laptop which is XP.

Thanks for the help. I've got it working now.