dwl-520e #2 almost but not quite

[glenn]

I have 2 dwl-520e cards.  The Asus box works just fine but the Compaq is giving me trouble.  For now I simply modprobe the drivers, bring the interface up and load the firmware by hand. All is well until I try to get an i.p.  Hopefully I'm not sending along so much useless garbage.

The Asus machine w/ kernel 2.6.4 says this:

wifi0: unknown hardware address type 801
sit0: unknown hardware address type 776
wifi0: unknown hardware address type 801
sit0: unknown hardware address type 776
Listening on LPF/wlan0/00:0d:88:50:8d:9e
Sending on   LPF/wlan0/00:0d:88:50:8d:9e
Sending on   Socket/fallback
DHCPREQUEST on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67
DHCPACK from 192.168.1.1
bound to 192.168.1.105 -- renewal in 41182 seconds.

The Compaq w/ kernel 2.4.26:

wifi0: unknown hardware address type 801
wifi0: unknown hardware address type 801
Listening on LPF/wlan0/00:0d:88:4b:df:69
Sending on   LPF/wlan0/00:0d:88:4b:df:69
Sending on   Socket/fallback/fallback-net
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 8
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 9
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 12
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 20
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 11
No DHCPOFFERS received.
No working leases in persistent database.

Sleeping.

The Asus says "Sending on   Socket/fallback"
The Compaq says "Sending on   Socket/fallback/fallback-net"

Is that a problem
Why does the Asus do DHCPREQUEST but the Compaq DHCPDISCOVER?  
Perhaps these are just differences in the kernels?

The Comapq card is up (Cell 02 is mine):

iwlist wlan0 scanning
wlan0     Scan completed :
          Cell 01 - Address: 00:0D:88:1E:A1:28
                    ESSID:"HOME"
                    Mode:Master
                    Frequency:2.412GHz
                    Quality:0/70  Signal level:-83 dBm  Noise level:-90 dBm
                    Encryption key:off
                    Bit Rate:1Mb/s
                    Bit Rate:2Mb/s
                    Bit Rate:5.5Mb/s
                    Bit Rate:11Mb/s
                    Extra:bcn_int=100
                    Extra:resp_rate=10
          Cell 02 - Address: 00:0F:66:00:7E:54
                    ESSID:"cromagnonet"
                    Mode:Master
                    Frequency:2.437GHz
                    Quality:0/70  Signal level:-32 dBm  Noise level:-91 dBm
                    Encryption key:on
                    Bit Rate:1Mb/s
                    Bit Rate:2Mb/s
                    Bit Rate:5.5Mb/s
                    Bit Rate:11Mb/s
                    Extra:bcn_int=100
                    Extra:resp_rate=10
          Cell 03 - Address: 00:30:AB:1E:11:AC
                    ESSID:"Janet Wireless"
                    Mode:Master
                    Frequency:2.437GHz
                    Quality:0/70  Signal level:-82 dBm  Noise level:-91 dBm
                    Encryption key:off
                    Bit Rate:1Mb/s
                    Bit Rate:2Mb/s
                    Bit Rate:5.5Mb/s
                    Bit Rate:11Mb/s
                    Extra:bcn_int=100
                    Extra:resp_rate=20

I *think* the Compaq card is misconfigured:

iwconfig wlan0
wlan0     IEEE 802.11b  ESSID:"cromagnonet"  
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.467GHz  Access Point: 44:44:44:44:44:44  
          Bit Rate=2Mb/s   Sensitivity=1/3  
          Retry min limit:8   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Encryption key:1234-5678-9011-1213-ABCD-EFGH-IJ   Security mode:restricted
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality:0/70  Signal level:-73 dBm  Noise level:-73 dBm
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:15  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:117  Invalid misc:548   Missed beacon:0

The acces point, bit rate and frequency all differ between the two cards.  
I cannot force the card onto another ap nor change the rate or frequency:

iwconfig wlan0 ap 00:0F:66:00:7E:54
iwconfig wlan0 rate 11M
iwconfig wlan0 freq 2.437GHz

Those parameters refuse to change.  
Sometimes the ap on the Compaq box says 00:00:00:00:00:00. 
Occasionally get the card is at the 11M rate but I have no idea how or why.  

So I ask you, what in the wide world of wireless is going on here?  How did I get myself into this mess and more importantly how to get out?  :) Thanks for any pointers.