Also, when you check the ip address, be aware of the APIPA range: 169.254.0.0-169.254.255.255. If APIPA is enabled in your distro, it may be assigning an address in this range. If all computers in the local lan use APIPA, they can talk to each other, but they will not be able to communicate beyond the local lan (no router settings).
This is often the case in Windows when DHCP is failing. I don't know of any specific distro that enables APIPA by default. Gentoo offers it, but you have to enable it explicitly first. Also for wireless, some hw in Linux can get "stuck" to the point where reloading the driver isn't even enough--a reboot is required to reset it to a sane state. I've had this happen with various drivers in the past. Sometimes disabling wpa_supplicant during boot, and then enabling it manually after booted does the trick. It's still a moon-phase/star-alignment thing sometimes unfortunately. Wireless in Linux has come a long ways, it'll get there. /* PLUG: http://plug.org, #utah on irc.freenode.net Unsubscribe: http://plug.org/mailman/options/plug Don't fear the penguin. */
