connection problem

[backflip]

I'm a complete nooby and after great difficulty I managed to get my Acer laptop to connect via my wireless card, but although the kwifimanager shows the signal to be excellent i can't get online with the browser or email. My laptop connects to the wireless system but the software won't connect to the web. I disabled the knoppix firewall but that didn't help. I don't think it is the hardware firewall because I can get Knoppix to connect ok and can browse when i run it in my wired desktop behind the same hardware firewall. I don't know what to do next.
Also i don't know how to save the network config, it doesn't seem to work and each time I've got to go to config in kwifimanager, enter the network name, and then 'activate,' and 'apply.' After that I use wavelan to enter the network name again and click 'ok'on all the other options. I then go back to kwifimanager/config and 'activate' and save, then I scan for network, which it finds but doesn't connect with until I go back to wavelan and enter the encryption code.
Surely I'm doing this all wrong and there is an easier way, and a way to save it all.
Thanks.

[foamrotreturns]

There is certainly a way to save all that information. Are you familiar with batch files in Windows? You can create similar files in Linux called shell scripts that execute a list of commands that you store in an ASCII file. You can store the commands for binding your interface to a particular network with a particular network key. Then every time you run the script, it will do all of those things.

The command for setting wireless settings is iwconfig. Do a "man iwconfig" to learn more about this command.
The command for getting an IP address from the DHCP server is "pump -i <interface name>"

For more info about shell scripting, google "bash scripting beginner's tutorial"
that should get you started.