Question : wifi card will not connect

I have a proxim 8471-wd wifi card I need to configure on an old IBM laptop.  

I can get it to do everything EXCEPT connect.

I used iwconfig to configure the card.

"ifconfig" yields:

ath0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:20:A6:51:EC:49  
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 b)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)

eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:10:A4:82:87:B9  
          inet addr:172.16.1.36  Bcast:172.16.255.255  Mask:255.255.0.0
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:1431 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:1236 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:899350 (878.2 KiB)  TX bytes:330091 (322.3 KiB)
          Interrupt:11 Base address:0xc000

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback  
          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:16436  Metric:1
          RX packets:2 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:2 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
          RX bytes:100 (100.0 b)  TX bytes:100 (100.0 b)

wifi0     Link encap:UNSPEC  HWaddr 00-20-A6-51-EC-49-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00  
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:10338 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:808
          TX packets:88 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:199
          RX bytes:879172 (858.5 KiB)  TX bytes:4400 (4.2 KiB)
          Interrupt:11 Memory:d0ee2000-d0ef2000

"iwconfig" yeilds:

ath0      IEEE 802.11g  ESSID:"2wire775"  
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.437GHz  Access Point: 00:00:00:00:00:00  
          Bit Rate:0kb/s   Tx-Power:17 dBm   Sensitivity=0/3  
          Retry:off   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality:0/94  Signal level:-95 dBm  Noise level:-95 dBm
          Rx invalid nwid:13344  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0

"iwlist key" yields:

ath0      3 key sizes : 40, 104, 128bits
          4 keys available :
            [1]: xxxx-xxxx-xx (40 bits)
            [2]: off
            [3]: off
            [4]: off
          Current Transmit Key: [1]
          Security mode:restricted

Key is correct - I Xed it out for obvious reasons.

"iwlist scan" shows 9 local cells.

I had to use "sudo ifconfig ath0 up" to turn the card "on" (lights  blink back and forth but not pulsating like when the card connects)

I tried 3 different OSs (ubuntu, eeebuntu, and DSL (Damn Small Linux)), all with identical results with respect to this card.

I tried to find a linux driver for this card,  but did not have any luck.

I need to use this particular card because it's the only one I could find that has an external antenna attachment.  The point of this exercise is to get the laptop set up so I can use it when we travel.  Most RV parks have weak wifi signals.  The external antenna really helps.  At home I get one, maybe two cells w/o the antenna.  With the antenna I can see as many of 16 cells.

Answer : wifi card will not connect

All I can suggest is upgrading to a later driver (I'm assuming you're using ndiswrapper with a windows driver) and trying then.

Dhcpd shouldn't affect the situation, it sounds like you're receiving an IP anyway (if you aren't sure try ifconfig ath0 xx.xx.xx.xx to assign a static ip when you bring it up).

As for make not working, try "sudo apt-get install build-essential" on ubuntu - some linuxes don't have make (vital for building anything from source) installed by default.