I'm a noob to Ubuntu, but not computers. I installed a full version of Ubuntu version 12 whatever it is. I run it on a machine that has Win7/Win8 on another hard drive. My wireless adapter is some tiny USB stick I got on eBay - it works great in Windows, but I can't get it to work in Ubuntu. More precisely, Ubuntu is providing me a list (sometimes) of wireless networks in the area and when I try to connect to mine it just keeps password prompting me even though the one I use is correct.

I looked over all the settings multiple times and don't believe there is anything in error regarding what it takes to connect to my network. So, I thought maybe it is a driver issue and came across NDIS. I thought I should try installing it, but I don't know how when I can't connect the Ubuntu machine to the Internet. I tried some commands to no avail. I have the Ubuntu installation disc and it shows a NDIS common and utils .deb files in there.

Can someone out there help me out to get this wireless setup so I can get online?