Hi, clem -
Thanks for sending the link. I'd already spotted that thread. He's got a Belkin F5D80001, with an Atheros - um - $#&@* it I forgot the chipset #. Anyways, Mike (our friend) maintains the computers and the network where he works. He's green at Linux, but much more competent with PC's as a whole (especially networking!) than I am.
We hosed his Ubuntu install and replaced it with Mint. He likes the blue
Went into Network Tools, the wireless card wasn't even there. Mike had done some homework and already knew about Mint's Windows Wireless function. He found it, and we got to the part where it says "Plug in the .inf file" I was going "Huh?" but he knew what he wanted to do next. Went back into XP, where his wireless connection works just fine, and found a thread regarding his Belkin. It described the "ath4615.inf" (or something like that) file so Mike found his way into Belkin's setup files and copied that .inf to a thumb drive. Back to Mint, dropped the .inf file into the slot, and now the wireless card shows up in Networking. Mike enabled it, plugged in his codes (I was lost at that part - no experience with wireless config) then he went downstairs and set the router to some sort of "broadcast" function that you're supposed to use when establishing a connection, but nothing happened.
At this point I don't know if the configuration is right but some setting is wrong, or if we need a better .inf file, or what. I'm scrounging for any leads on this. Have e-mailed Mike links from the Ubuntu Forums on general wireless setup stuff.
If anyone knows a good wireless troubleshooting link I'd sure appreciate it!