Wireless USB Adapter

[Jose Diaz Bardales]

Ladies and Gentlemen!

Two days ago I decided to install Ubuntu Server 10.04 amd64 on a Desktop
Acer that someone gave me (just to learn more about Ubuntu). The system
has an Internal NIC which works perfectly (besides my cat5 wire in the
middle of the living room) so I have a wireless usb adapter that I will
like to use.

Now here is the problem, my wireless usb adapter is a NetGear WG111 v3
(Realtek RTL8187B) or at least is what I get after a "lsusb" command so
I did some research which help me to learn some new tricks but confused
at the same time =)
 
I read some documentation that tells me to first verify that the driver
is present and loaded so I did a "sudo lshw -C network" which says that
the network for the Wireless interface is disable and I do not have a
product name which make me suspicious of this being the culprit.

Following I did a "sudo lsmod" which shows me:
rtl8187   53204  0
cfg80211  148341 2  rtl8187,mac80211
To my understanding this modules are the drivers for my wireles usb
adapter.

Then I proceeded to edit "etc/network/interfaces" and added:
auto wlan0
iface wlan0 inet dhcp
once finished I did a "sudo ifup wlan0" and see the DHCP protocol
staring to look for a DHCP server which could not find. (I know I am not
connected to the my router, yet)

Finally I typed "ifconfig" and "iwconfig" and saw wlan0 interface
present but without a conection information. so I typer "sudo iwlist
wlan0 scan" which shows me all the information from my router.

Ok, at this point I believe that my wireless usb adapter has been setup
correctly but I need to tell it how to access my router which by the way
is not open and by open I mean that it "needs a password" but it is
discoverable which means its ESSID is been broadcast. 

What I am doing wrong or missing?

I would like to mention that I found some information on "wpa_cli" which
is a front end for the wpa_supplicant but when I want to use it says
"Could not connect to the wpa_supplicat - re-trying" and makes me think
if my usb adapter has been setup correctly.

Thank you in advance for your time and any suggestions that you have.



PS: Please, let me know if this emails needs to be address to the Ubuntu
Server mailing list instead of of the Ubuntu User mailing list. I
apologize for any inconvenience it may cause.