A little Linux help?

[CameronCN]

@Niner: Bless you. I have Kleenex...
@Sigma: That's an interesting idea. I'll look into it.
@Baloki: No idea. How do I find out?

So now I've got another blank hard drive in that old Dell box, trying to install XP. I'm missing how easy it was to install Ubuntu...

[baloki]

It'll be set on your router, ask whoever manages that to tell you the kind of network your running

[nickspoon]

It's probably going to be difficult to diagnose the problem unless we have a few things. Could you paste here the output of the following commands:
ifconfig
iwconfig
ndiswrapper -l

These go in a terminal, then you can copy them by highlighting and hitting ctrl-shift-c.

[CameronCN]

Thanks lots for your willingness to help, guys. I'm actually going to try Sigma's idea though, because the wireless is pretty bad through two floors even when I do get it to work, and the power line system sounds promising. Plus, I don't actually have the HDD with Linux on it in a computer right now--turns out my "new" workstation I bought* takes SCSI plugs, not the older kind, which thoroughly messes up my HDD arrangement scheme. (The box I had it in when I installed it wasn't actually mine. I used Ubuntu to redeem a corrupted Windows drive, thinking I could then move it to one of my computers.)

*For $62. Seriously. Yes, it's worth like $200 in parts. Can't boot it yet, though--it's still missing two necessary items to run. I got them for $25 including shipping, and they're on the way.