I don't know whats wrong with my setup but using /etc/network/interfaces OR the gnome-network-manager always kills my card. It will connect for a very brief time then it'll never work again till I reboot.

I have to setup /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf manually (info wpa_supplicant.conf).. and then run:
iwconfig wlan0 essid YourEssid
wpa_supplicant -Dwext -iwlan0 -c/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf -B
dhclient wlan0

to watch wpa_supplicant you can open a new terminal and run "wpa_cli".. it should walk you through the handshake process and tell you when it's connected and all that.