Well after trying many distros with the same problems, xubuntu 6.06 has gotten me further than any of the others. Since this is the network forum I'll keep it to just that problem.

I can connect to the internet with both Eth0 and wlan0 but after a few seconds the transmission seems to stall. I was watching symantics download and let me tell you it wasn't pretty. About 3-10 seconds after connecting at about 200-500kbps it would just drop and stall. Now I am certain this is not the network because I have tried several situations with 2 different boxes. My other box can connect to the wireless router or the hub with absolutely no problems.

This is the laptop model:
http://support.gateway.com/s/Mobile/...08829sp2.shtml

This is my lspci:
http://pastebin.com/m49da390c

If there is anything i can add or do please let me know.

Before anything, I recommend upgrading to 8.04. The latest version (8.04) cleared up a lot of wireless issues. I'm not sure if this is one of them, but I had a lot of trouble getting wireless installed and wireless stability issues even in 7.04 on a Gateway laptop with a broadcom chipset. Ubuntu 8.04 installed it without any issues and is very stable. I also had problems with other distros with my setup, and 8.04 and Linux Mint were the only ones that installed the wireless without a hitch. Both are stable and switch wireless networks (coffee shops) without any interaction.

hth

Well I'll try that. The newer versions i tried before, Ubuntu 8.04 I could not install, kept freezing and the xubuntu would stall out for hours. There isn't a way to just update to the new version is there??

I tried and installed 8.04. Not only does it not recognize my eth0 or wlan0 it also screwed up my screen resolution (with no options to change) and still no sound.. I'm not even sure where to go from here.. At least 6.06 had a better hardware configuration with the laptop..

I'll leave this distro on and try any suggestions... (now trying alternate install)

Update: so I managed to set the resolution to 800x600 by adding a few lines to xorg.conf. I was trying for more res but whatever for now. My sound was next cuz it was much easier than the network.

I set up the wireless with ndiswrapper and a rtl8185 driver and i still get the same thing as I first posted. web browsing is awesome but any sort of connections or downloads seem to cut off in less than 30 seconds.

Could this be just a bad card?? Is there anyway to test the card for connection results??