I think I've figured out what I was doing wrong.
I forgot I've got WPA-PSK enabled on the access point / router -- now I've got to find a supplicant for that.
Another Newbie needs help:
Here is what I get from iwconfig:
wlan0 IEEE 802.11-b ESSID:"Wireless Hood" Nickname:"Wireless Hood"
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.437 GHz Access Point: 00:40:05:5D:25:9B
Bit Rate:11 Mb/s Tx-Power:2346 dBm
Retry min limit:8 RTS thrff Fragment thr
ff
Encryption keyff
Link Quality=90/92 Signal level=-40 dBm Noise level=-97 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0
and from ifconfig:
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:E0:29:4B:40:65
inet addr:192.168.0.150 Bcast:192.168.0.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::2e0:29ff:fe4b:4065/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:6941 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:5994 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:1296807 (1.2 MiB) TX bytes:741710 (724.3 KiB)
Interrupt:11 Base address:0x1020
lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:8 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:8 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:480 (480.0 b) TX bytes:480 (480.0 b)
wlan0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:0F:3D:87:8B:1D
inet addr:192.168.0.151 Bcast:192.168.0.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::20f:3dff:fe87:8b1d/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:97 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:0 (0.0 b) TX bytes:9804 (9.5 KiB)
Interrupt:11 Memory:c417c000-c417d000
eth0 works fine, but I cannot get wlan0 to function.
any suggestions? I am sure you might need other information, and I can provide it if you tell me how to find it.
I think I've figured out what I was doing wrong.
I forgot I've got WPA-PSK enabled on the access point / router -- now I've got to find a supplicant for that.

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