If your WLAN card is not automatically detected, check whether it is supported by openSUSE. A list of supported WLAN network cards is available under http://en.opensuse.org/HCL/Network_Adapters_(Wireless). If your card is not supported, it may be possible to make it work using the Microsoft Windows drivers with Ndiswrapper. Please refer to http://en.opensuse.org/Ndiswrapper for detailed information.
If your WLAN card fails to respond, check if you have downloaded the
needed firmware. Refer to
/usr/share/doc/packages/wireless-tools/README.firmware
for more information.
Modern laptops usually have a network card and a WLAN card. If you configured both devices with DHCP (automatic address assignment), you may encounter problems with the name resolution and the default gateway. This is evident from the fact that you can ping the router but cannot surf the Internet. The Support Database features an article on this subject at http://en.opensuse.org/SDB:Name_Resolution_Does_Not_Work_with_Several_Concurrent_DHCP_Clients.
Several drivers are available for devices with
Prism2 chips. The various cards work more or
less smoothly with the various drivers. With these cards, WPA is only
possible with the hostap driver. If such a card does not work properly
or not at all or you want to use WPA, read
/usr/share/doc/packages/wireless-tools/README.prism2.