OK you wireless gurus, here's your chance to shine!

I have 2 Thinkpads. One XP, one Linux.
I installed SLED 10 on the Linux box to test it. Wireless configured automatically and connected - great. The XP box also connected to the same network with no problems.

Then I installed FC6 to try it out. No wireless. Also not as friendly as SLED.

Then I moved to a new location with a different wireless network.
OK, re-installed SLED 10. No wireless. XP works fine on this network.

Here are the details:
iwlist ath0 scan reports the same wireless network that the XP box is connected to. When you click on the network connection in the panel toolbar you can see the same connection as XP is using with good strength. Click on that connection and it thinks for a minute or so, then ... no connection. Big red X. Tried putting the SSID into the wireless network setup - still no connection. The wireless icon on the Thinkpad is flashing - power is on. IP is set to automatic in the wireless setup - just can't seem to get an IP and connect.

Any ideas?
Thanks!

Can you send the output of ifconfig and iwconfig command please?

Let me guess,... You have an Atheros 52xx chipset in your wireless card???

You need to download and install the MadWifi package, which is on the no-no list in SuSE (the Madwifi binaries do not comply with the GPL 100%, so not included by default).

You should also look to install some of the nicer WiFi tools like wpa_supplicant, and some of the GUIs that make configuring it easier...

That, or use Ubuntu/Kubuntu/Xubuntu,... and activate the Universal and Restricted repositories to install the proprietary stuff.

Thanks for the input folks.

Re-installed SLED 10 and now it is working fine.
Who can figure?