..or am I?

I migrate around various free wifi enabled coffeeshops in the DC area, and getting online is
frequently a real fiasco. Mandrake almost always refuses to automatically detect the singal, and I sometimes spend an hour trying to get online. I configure and reconfigure the connection, restart my X session, I reboot the machine, and maybe I get online.

The wifi card (eth1, Harris Semiconductor Prism Wavelan 2.5 Chipset) is frequently not detected on boot, and I have to wrestle with it.

Right now, I'm on the 'Net , but net_monitor says I'm not connected. As it is, running net_monitor fromr the command line always prints

****
GLib-CRITICAL **: file gmain.c: line 1560 (g_source_remove): assertion `tag > 0' failed at /usr/sbin/net_monitor line 157.
Shutting down interface eth1: [ OK ]
Shutting down loopback interface: [ OK ]
Setting network parameters: [ OK ]
Bringing up loopback interface: [ OK ]
Bringing up interface eth1: [FAILED]

****

I don't know Perl well enough to fix it myself, and I've never seen anything on the 'Net about it.

My machine's stats are:

kernel 2.6.3-7mdk

PowerPro IV:28 ULTRA
15" SXGA+ TFT Active Matrix w/ATI Mobility Radeon 9000 w/64MB DDR,
2.66GHz Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor (Northwood) w/512k L2 Cache - 533MHz System Bus Speed,
60GB Ultra ATA/100 Hard Drive at 5,400 RPM,
1,024MB (2 SODIMMS) PC2700 DDR Memory,
Combo 8X DVD/24x10x24 CD-RW (Toshiba DVD-ROM SD-R2412)
Built-in 56k V.90 Data/Fax Modem,
Built-in 10/100BaseT Ethernet w/RJ-45 Jack,
Built-in 802.11b Wireless LAN,
Smart Li-ion Battery,
Mandrake 10.0 /
Xi Graphics Summit_LX Platinum 2.2.20, with xsvc 3.0-53-i386.

Any help is appreciated!

Well once your cards is working the only thing you should have to do is change essid and key (might be not needed but then you have to have both as nothing) and then run a dhcpclient like dhcp to connect to the proper access point. You can use iwconfig with the "ap" function to tell your card which access point to connect to.

I do have a dhcp client running, but there's also Zeroconf running on the system.
I do change the ESSID and non of these places use an encryption key. Also, if there is an access point, none of the staff in any of these shops will know it; they barely know the ESSID I frequently have to set the ESSID and the mode with iwconfig, as well using the wizard in the "Configure your computer" panel. I may have to do this literally 10 times in an hour, for it to take. And sometimes it won't.

If it's an open point you might be able to see the essid with "iwlist scan"

Which dhcp-client do you have? For example I can just change the essid and the run "dhcpcd wlan0" to pick up an access point. If not you could try ifup and ifdown. Do "ifdown wlan0" (or your interface if it's different), change the essid and then do "ifup wlan0"

I don't have my laptop with me, and I don't remember the client name offhand... I have tried "ifconfig eth1 down" and up, also.