Ubuntu WPA wireless setup question

[Jason Ash]

Hi,

First, I was wondering if I could send e-mails on this list without
being subscribed (because I don't want 200 emails a day). My real
question is about connecting my laptop running Ubuntu 9.04 to my home
wireless WPA network. My Widows XP desktop connected just fine, but
ubuntu will say connection is active but there aren't any colored bars
in the network manager applet and it doesn't acquire a DHCP assigned
IP address and neither is it connected to the internet (tried ping,
too). I should just be able to add a new wireless network, type in the
SSID, choose WPA personal, type in my passphrase, and choose DHCP for
IP address assigning and be on my way, but apparently it doesn't work
this way. Yesterday, somehow I got a WEP wireless connection on my
laptop, but when I tried it again, I couldn't get that to work either.
I'm using Ndiswrapper for my Intel 2200 wireless network adapter, and
I have always been able to connect to the open, unsecured wireless
networks at college using my laptop. I have also read over the
documentation at
https://help.ubuntu.com/8.04/internet/C/wireless-connecting.html,
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WifiDocs/WPAHowTo?highlight=(wpa),
and https://help.ubuntu.com/8.04/internet/C/troubleshooting.html
without finding a solution. Moreover, I have searched the forums and
Google without any luck. I don't know how to use IRC, so I can try
that too if anyone is willing to tell me how. My residential wireless
gateway is a 2wire 2701. The only modes it allows are open or shared
WEP, WPA, or WPA and WPA 2 (current setting). I would really like to
keep it on WPA since the encryption is so much better.  Please help
me.

Thank you,
Jason Ash