This is a message of hope for all of the other noobies out there struggling to get wireless going on their laptops. I finally gave up on my old Dell Inspiron 8200 with one of those USB dongles. Good fortune would have it though, the good old Dell became unreliable, almost unusable, which gave me the justification I needed to get a new laptop. (The first new computer I've bought in a decade}. I came across this <a href="http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8651041&type=product&id=1195599779433&ref=06&loc=01&ci_src=14110944&ci_sku=8651041%20">Gateway MT6728</a> on sale at Best Buy for $549. I was so excited about getting what I considered a great deal, that I didn't even check first if there were any native wireless drivers for it.. As it turns out, the <a href="http://152.104.125.41/downloads/downloadsView.aspx?Langid=1&PNid=1&PFid=1&Level=6&Conn=5&DownTypeID=3&GetDown=false&Downloads=true#RTL8187B">Realtek RTL8187B</a> is one of the few that Realtek doesn't have a linux driver for. So after setting up the dual boot and making Ubuntu use the entire widescreen display, I decided to tackle the problem of wireless connectivity once again. I came across two resources that made the process much easier. <a href="http://www.linuxquestions.org/linux/answers/Networking/NdisWrapper_The_Ultimate_Guide/%20"> NdisWrapper: The Ultimate Guide</a> and <a href="http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net/joomla/index.php?/component/option,com_openwiki/Itemid,33/%20">NDISwrapper Wiki</a>. In particular the "List of cards known to work" showed me exactly what driver was needed and where to down load it. I don't know if this made a difference or not, but for the first time I used the terminal as described in the Guide rather than using the GUI for NDISwrapper to install the driver. I'm also using "Wifi Radar" that I downloaded and installed with Synaptic. So keep the faith my noobie brethren. There is hope. If I can do it, I'm certain any of you can as well. <a href="http://www.google.com/coop/cse?cx=001341933570257451639%3Ay8gwl467cqw&hl=en">Ubuntu Google Custom Search</a>