the one with slackware linux and configuring its wireless settings

I have an Acer Aspire 5050 laptop. It has a built-in wireless network adapter called Broadcom 802.11g. Now, installing and configuring Broadcom driver in Slackware 12.1 is a bit pain in the ass. The shipped kernel modules did not work as expected. These are the steps necessary to get the little bugger to work:

Download ndiswrapper [link] package, then `slackbuild' it, and then `installpkg' it. (Thanks to Eric Hameleers for the slackbuild script).

Get Broadcom windows driver. You'd only need two files here: the bcmwl5.inf and the bcmwl5.sys one. You could fetch it from your preexisting windows driver (which could be found in C:\windows\system32\drivers) or Google for it.

Install the driver by issuing the command (put the inf and the sys in the same directory):
# ndiswrapper -i bcmwl5.inf

Check that the driver is installed correctly:
# ndiswrapper -l
bcmwl5 : driver installed
device (14E4:4318) present

Make sure that your wireless device is listed there (e.g. wlan0 in my system).
# iwconfig
wlan0 IEEE 802.11g ESSID:off/any
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.462 GHz Access Point: Not-Associated
Bit Rate:54 Mb/s Tx-Power:32 dBm
RTS thr:2347 B Fragment thr:2346 B
Encryption key:off
Power Management:off
Link Quality:0 Signal level:0 Noise level:0
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

Now scan for other wireless devices within range (Note: replace wlan0 with your device name):
# iwlist wlan0 scanning
wlan0 Scan completed :
Cell 01 - Address: 00:14:BF:DC:13:B1
ESSID:"free-hotspot"
Protocol:IEEE 802.11g
Mode:Managed
Frequency:2.437 GHz (Channel 6)
Quality:56/100 Signal level:-60 dBm Noise level:-96 dBm
Encryption key:off
Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 6 Mb/s; 9 Mb/s
11 Mb/s; 12 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s; 24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s
48 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s
Extra:bcn_int=100
Extra:atim=0

Okay these two scenarios below can be used as examples:

Scenario 1: Connect to an open ad-hoc network called "karousel" with manual (a.k.a static) IP setting.
# iwconfig wlan0 essid "karousel" mode ad-hoc
# ifconfig wlan0 192.168.1.12 netmask 255.255.255.0 up

Scenario 2: Connect to a protected access point called "free-hotspot", with access key of "12345", and with auto (a.k.a DHCP) IP setting.
# iwconfig wlan0 essid "free-hotspot" mode managed key s:12345
# dhcpcd wlan0

I might add more scenarios/examples later in the future. Have fun!