I just installed Freespire. This is my first time using anything but Windows. Originally it showed up in my network manager that I had wireless devices (2 wireless networks were available). But I couldn't connect and the blue light on the USB network adapter doesn't come on at all. I found a thread that explained how to use ndiswrapper to install the driver from Windows. I don't know what I did but even though the devices (wlan0 and wmaster0) show up and are enabled, no wireless networks show up, so somehow I have made it worse. I think the best thing for me to do right now is just give up and go to bed, and see what tomorrow brings. At the very least, I need to undo whatever I did and get the wireless networks to reappear.

I have just installed my very first linux system, Debian.. due to problems with the iso images, i ended up going with the net install dealy... as it is, i have no idea how to begin gettin it hooked to the internet, but my service provider is netgear as well...

I just hope I'll glean a few things out keepin an eye on your thread here, and hopefully aquire sum very much needed information!