Try This:
Click on the fat penguin next to the "K"
Click on "Network Internet"
Click on "Wavelan configuration"
fill in the blanks as they come up
you can leave them blank if you don't know
After running Wavelan
Click on the fat penguin next to the "K"
Click on "Network Internet"
Click on "Network Card Configuration"
Select either eth0 or eth1 (my wireless is eth0)
Select use dhcp broadcast? "yes"
the program should run and go away
If all went well, you are connected!

This works for me with my Sony centrino laptop (Z1RA)
I'm a real noob, there's probably a way to have it run these programs on startup, but I do this every time I start up and it gets me connected with wifi.

Bob