Last year, I first tried Knoppix 3.6 or 3.7 as an absolute newbie. I was sitting in a WiFi coffee house that I frequent, and downloaded Knoppix via WiFi. Then I burned the iso, booted the CD, and it worked the first time (Windows XP Home).

My Netgear MA401 WiFi card was still in the slot, so I tried to connect to the Internet. No problem. Worked the first time (to my surprise) with no user intervention.

A few days later, I was in a different WiFi coffee house. I booted directly to Knoppix CD, without first using Windows. No matter what I did, I could not get the wireless to connect. The card was recognized, but the transmitter was not. So I re-booted to Windows, connected to the WiFi, and worked awhile. Later, while still there, I re-booted to Knoppix - and this time, it immediately recognized the WiFi transmitter! I was able to connect to the Internet in Knoppix.

This leads me to believe that the particular card, and maybe some others, store channel information within the card itself. Apparently, Knoppix (at the time) was unable to connect to a previously-unconnected channel, but was able to connect to a previously-connected (by Windows) channel. It could not have obtained that information from the hard drive.

I should point out that the WiFi was not password-protected.

I don't know the technology for sure; I am merely guessing. I haven't tried to connect yet with 4.0.2 (not near WiFi these days).