I will go straight to the point. See how you can configure the wifi (on the laptop) from the command-line. 'iwconfig' is the main tool. If I recall correctly, once the module is loaded you can do something like this to bring up the interface: 'ifconfig wlan0 up' (yes, with ifconfig, not iwconfig at first) The module can be loaded but not used. Doing 'lsmod' will show you if the module is active. If I recall, if the network inteface is not being used by the kernel doing its thing, the module will have a ZERO at the end of its line of output from lsmod, and 'ifconfig' will not show the interface. Once you do the above thing I mentioned, the wlan0 will be "up" and the module in use. Then, once it is up, you can issue iwconfig commands to make it connect, etc. And once it is connected, you fire up the DHCP client to make it get an IP, etc. Good luck.