Problems trying out PCLinuxOS

[#1]

Of course you could always boot from a live copy of Ubuntu, and use this to make appropriate adjustments to your Wifi setup - including downloading any PCLinuxOS bits 

[#2]

good luck with your new piece of kit.  i hope it works for you.  have you tried connecting via ethernet cable, rather than wifi, or is that inconvenient?

[#3]

I've been using ethernet to try to resolve the problems. But it meant moving the PC, monitor, keyboard etc into a bedroom on the floor to get close to the router (the master BT socket is the only one with broadband available). That's not a viable long term solution, hence the wifi requirement. Hopefully a PCI card which has linux drivers available will solve the problem.
Thanks to everyone for your help and suggestions.

[#4]

It looks as thought it's found the WIFI card correctly  - but it hasn't setup the encryption. You might need to go into the control panel again and into reconfigure an existing connection - then add the WPA encryption requirement and the key.
I'm afraid I did take the easy option and changed the Mini-PCI card in the netbook I used to an Intel known detectable model. 
There's also a newer release candidate of SAM 2008 and that's based on PCLinuxOS, with additional software pre-loaded you might like to try.

[#5]

I am pleased to say that I installed my new PCI card today and it worked perfectly first time with both Windows and PCLOS.

[#6]

excellent news.:D  have a lot of fun with linux.