Hostap box don't ping to another box with w98, and other problem

[Jesus Gomez]

I have a hostAP box with:

Debian 3.0
2.4.20 kernel
Usr 2415 card (which is a pc-card inside a plx adaptor) with firm 1.4.9


And another with:

Windows 98
Usr 2415 (which is a pc-card inside a plx adaptor) card with firm 1.4.9

I ping from w98 to linux, ok
I ping from linux to w98, no pings are replied

When i type iwconfig, i see the message Driver for wlan0 has been 
compiled with we v14, since this program has v12.... I suspect it is 
not the problem ?Is it?

Another thing i note is, i setup in /etc/network/interfaces:

auto wlan0
iface wlan0 inet static
   address 192.168.0.10
   netmask 255.255.255.0
   wireless_essid my_essid
   wireless_channel 6
   ....... an some other options like these

but when i reboot none of the settings are'nt loaded, except the address

What am i doing bad

Thanks for your help