as this is firmware, I can't really help much, but perhaps a list of the types
of messages that could be of use might be appropriate.  A few I can think of:

"Problem: Cannot find wireless network" - meaning either the selected SSID isn't
found any more, or NO SSID's are found

"Problem: Cannot connect to wireless network" - when connection times out and
the box has given up.

"Problem: wireless security failed" - if there is a way to actually know that
its the WEP/WPA exchange that has failed.

kdf--that's pretty much exactly what i had in mind.

the second line could have additional information as well...like:

Problem: Cannot find specified wireless network
The network name may have changed or is absent

Problem: Cannot connect to specified wireless network
Double-check encryption settings and SSID, try closer.

Problem: wireless encryption failure
The specified security settings appear to be incorrect.

We don't get much information from the wireless card.  This will be relatively hard to fix.

Additional messages have been added in firmware 37. They are:

"Cannot find specified wireless network"
    SSID is not found, it must be entered wrongly or the router is out of range.

"Cannot connect to wireless network"
    Association failed, either a setting or incompatibility problem. Depending on router model/settings this could be caused by incorrect WEP keys.

"Wireless encryption failure"
    eapol handshake failed, WPA/WPA2 password is incorrect.

"WEP encryption failure"
    WEP keys are incorrect. Depending on router model/settings this could also reported in 2 above.

Please try the latest nightly build with Firmware 37 and reopen if you have
issues.  Also, please note details of your configuration if you have not
already.

Subject: Re:  please make error messages when failing to connect wirelessly more intuitive

Good work, Richard.

If you get a chance, can we tweak these to:

On Apr 6, 2006, at 6:01 AM, Slim Devices Bugzilla wrote:
> "Cannot find specified wireless network"
>     SSID is not found, it must be entered wrongly or the router is  
> out of
> range.
Problem: Cannot find wireless network "george".

(In many cases, the user has entered or chosen the wrong SSID, so  
printing it out will give a clue, especially if we use quotes around  
it.)

> "Cannot connect to wireless network"
>     Association failed, either a setting or incompatibility  
> problem. Depending
> on router model/settings this could be caused by incorrect WEP keys.
Problem: Cannot connect to wireless network.

> "Wireless encryption failure"
>     eapol handshake failed, WPA/WPA2 password is incorrect.
Problem: The WPA password failed.

(I want to give a hint here that it's the password, which is the case  
the vast majority of the time, but not be so specific that it rules  
out any other failure.)

> "WEP encryption failure"
>     WEP keys are incorrect. Depending on router model/settings this  
> could also
> reported in 2 above.
Problem: The WEP key is incorrect.

How does that sound?