I have a hard drive ....sitting in my laptop case.
I put Ubuntu (Hoary Hedgehog) on it, and every
application looks fine, but it just won't network.
It's an old Dell inspiron 3800, and I'm using an
old Sony Ericsson GC79 nic. I don't even know
where to start. It was easy enough to install,
everything: sound, keyboard, monitor...works
with the exception that even during the install
networking had to be skipped, and not because
of the card I'm now using, but because, it seems
it couldn't find the port (it's an old laptop; uses
PCI for external sound cards and nics) it was looking
for an ethernet port, and I didn't know what to tell it.
I think I'm gonna need the kind of help that'll leave you
shaking your head about me, but I think that help is
worth more than my pride right now. Flame me if you
absolutely must, I'll understand, but please, give me
a clue so I can finally stop using this Windows drive.

PCI? Laptop? Sure it's not PCMCIA? I can see from your WiFi card that it's really PCMCIA..

Apparently you have to use ndiswrapper to get wifi with that thing.

It's a step in the direction towards
me getting help. You're probably
right about it being PCMCIA. I don't
know how to use ndiswrapper
though. I've got no experience.
(and I was hoping for more than just the
wifi; I want the GPRS too).
I'd dearly appreciate an explanation.
Is anybody out there using that
combination? Because that would
be my most certain path to the
most specific answer to my problem:
to befriend someone who had to
solve the same exact problem I'm facing
now. I figure that there's just enough people
on this earth to say that even my exact
problem can't possibly be unique. I'm sure I
must be a statistic.
(I'm imagining, that right now there's someone
with a dell laptop formatted to ubuntu using
the GPRS on their T-Mobile card reading this
very post right now.)

If you google for ericsson gc79 linux, then you find people running that card in Linux.

It is very unlikely that you will find anyone willing to spoon-feed information to you though..

Google is your best friend, true!
And OK, I might not even want
to hear every single step.
But you gotta admit: that image
is kinda funny(but I suppose, one
shouldn't ask for a doppelganger)
(eeeek! it's the anti-me lol)

Here's a link to an article written by someone who had, solved,
and posted the solution to my exact problem in complete
detail...spoon fed, if you will...Good! I will now get to join the
many, happy Ubuntu devoted!

here's the link: http://www.crispian.org/gc79/Instructions

Welcome to the "Ubuntu devoted" !:)