Arrgh! Wireless Networking(STILL cant get it)

[Paul Hendrick]

Hi all,
i've spent days ripping hair out and i still cant get my wireless
network cards to talk. i dont have a wireless router or access point,
it's just 2 wireless network cards.

Machine one:
Stock ubuntu kernel, ndiswrapper-0.12(built from sources), official
windows inf driver from the cd.

ndiswrapper -l shows:
bcmwl5  driver present, hardware present
AND the led is lit on the back of the computer box so the card is on.
network-admin WILL NOT allow me to enable this device. i've tried with
and without network keys, and with essid numerous names. i've played
with the wlan0 device in the /etc/network/interfaces a bit, and i've
tried keeping it with what the network-admin tool sets it to.
it is currently:
iface wlan0 inet dhcp
name Wireless LAN card
wireless_essid linux_wlan
wireless_key s:*************
wireless_mode ad-hoc
auto wlan0

it's only with the ubuntu network-admin too i can make permanent changes
to the wlan0 connection, if i use the iwconfig command line the changes
only last 5 seconds until they're restored to the ones that ubuntu
network-admin made(though iwconfig command doesnt alter the interfaces
file).
if i do
iwconfig wlan0 essid on mode ad-hoc key s:blahblahblah essid
"linux_wlan"
i can do wlist wlan0 scan on MACHINE2, and those details are all picked
up. so the cards are talking, to a point.
however, because the iwconfig command only changes things for a matter
of seconds, i cant connect anything. i NEED to make the network-admin
setup the wlan0 device, and activate it. How can I? should I attach my
dmesg file or anything for people to have a look at?

if I do ifup wlan0 on machine1, I get the output pasted below.
thanks for reading.

Internet Systems Consortium DHCP Client V3.0.1rc14
Copyright 2004 Internet Systems Consortium.
All rights reserved.
For info, please visit http://www.isc.org/products/DHCP

sit0: unknown hardware address type 776
sit0: unknown hardware address type 776
Listening on LPF/wlan0/00:11:50:1b:d8:26
Sending on   LPF/wlan0/00:11:50:1b:d8:26
Sending on   Socket/fallback
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 3
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 3
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 3
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 8
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 18
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 7
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 11
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 8
No DHCPOFFERS received.
No working leases in persistent database - sleeping.