i've gotten the card working using bits and pieces of a few different writeups and a few different drivers. i 've installed ndisgtk and used that to install the windows drivers...

the problem is the signal strength bounces all over the place, from 90% to 0% and anywhere inbetween, and randomly drops the connection...i've tried both the belkin windows xp drivers as well as the 8185 realtek drivers, with the same results...

this is so frustrating...someone help, please!

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=489368

the above is the most recent writeup i tried...

one other note: the same machine has windows xp on it, and i get full strength from the same location. another machine write next to it, also with xp, has full signal strength from the same location.