So today I tried the same thing (booted off the installation cd and tried to connect) but that didn't work this time. So I booted back into the installed version and all was fine, up until today. Back then, I booted off an installation cd (we're running 12.04 LTS) and the wifi worked fine.
The wifi was working when the computer was new (early Feb) and then stopped shortly afterwards. Tearing my hair out here, trying to get my Dad's laptop wireless connection working again.
