NETGEAR USB wifi card, ar9170usb, ar9170.fw

switched off the build in wireless (physically switched off, then dhcpcd -k eth1; pkill -9 wpa_supplicant)
copied the firmware (ar9170.fw) for the NETGEAR USB wifi card to /lib/firmware directory
plugged in the NETGEAR USB wifi card

usb 1-7: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 7
usb 1-7: New USB device found, idVendor=0846, idProduct=9010
usb 1-7: New USB device strings: Mfr=16, Product=32, SerialNumber=48
usb 1-7: Product: USB2.0 WLAN
usb 1-7: Manufacturer: ATHER
usb 1-7: SerialNumber: 12345
usb 1-7: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
cfg80211: Using static regulatory domain info
cfg80211: Regulatory domain: US
        (start_freq - end_freq @ bandwidth), (max_antenna_gain, max_eirp)
        (2402000 KHz - 2472000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (600 mBi, 2700 mBm)
        (5170000 KHz - 5190000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (600 mBi, 2300 mBm)
        (5190000 KHz - 5210000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (600 mBi, 2300 mBm)
        (5210000 KHz - 5230000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (600 mBi, 2300 mBm)
        (5230000 KHz - 5330000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (600 mBi, 2300 mBm)
        (5735000 KHz - 5835000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (600 mBi, 3000 mBm)
cfg80211: Calling CRDA for country: US
cfg80211: Regulatory domain changed to country: US
        (start_freq - end_freq @ bandwidth), (max_antenna_gain, max_eirp)
        (2402000 KHz - 2472000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2700 mBm)
        (5170000 KHz - 5250000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (300 mBi, 1700 mBm)
        (5250000 KHz - 5330000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm)
        (5490000 KHz - 5710000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm)
        (5735000 KHz - 5835000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (300 mBi, 3000 mBm)
usb 1-7: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 7
usb 1-7: firmware: requesting ar9170.fw
ath: EEPROM regdomain sanitized
ath: EEPROM regdomain: 0x64
ath: EEPROM indicates we should expect a direct regpair map
ath: Country alpha2 being used: 00
ath: Regpair used: 0x64
phy0: Selected rate control algorithm 'minstrel'
Registered led device: ar9170-phy0::tx
Registered led device: ar9170-phy0::assoc
usb 1-7: Atheros AR9170 is registered as 'phy0'
usbcore: registered new interface driver ar9170usb

used iwconfig to see whats cookin good lookin

wmaster0  no wireless extensions.

wlan0     IEEE 802.11abgn  ESSID:"" 
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.412 GHz  Access Point: Not-Associated  
          Tx-Power=0 dBm  
          Retry  long limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          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

then i run a scan to see if the wireless card sees some Acces Points:

bash-3.1# iwlist wlan0 scan | grep -i essid
                    ESSID:"BigPond5567"
                    ESSID:"no-KNICKERS"
                    ESSID:"no-KNICKERS"
                    ESSID:"biteme"
                    ESSID:"Rohan&Trisha"

And decided like i feel wearing no knickers today, so I run:

    /usr/sbin/wpa_supplicant -B -Dwext -iwlan0 -c/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf
    dhcpcd -h yobbo wlan0

/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf is:

network={
        ssid="no-KNICKERS"

        key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
        proto=WPA
        pairwise=TKIP
        group=TKIP
        psk="YOUR_PASSWORD"
}

After associating itself with the Access point the device dumped into /var/log/messages:

ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready
wlan0: direct probe to AP 00:1f:33:38:57:86 try 1
wlan0 direct probe responded
wlan0: authenticate with AP 00:1f:33:38:57:86
wlan0: authenticated
wlan0: associate with AP 00:1f:33:38:57:86
wlan0: RX AssocResp from 00:1f:33:38:57:86 (capab=0x11 status=0 aid=1)
wlan0: associated
ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): wlan0: link becomes ready

mbohun/gist:4263981