WLAN in HH 8.04

[Tom Bell]

I am wondering how Hardy Heron 8.04 (HH 8.04) can load the proprietary
drivers for a wireless card, then not see the card.  "lshw" and "lspci"
do not even show the equipment on two different computers that previous
versions of Kubuntu did.  The WLAN equipment just doesn't exist, period.
I have a home constructed computer that I have run FF and GG on with no
problem other than the fact that I could not get the WLAN to actually
connect to my Linksys router, even though it did see it and I entered
the MAC for filtering.  However, with HH 8.04, the equipment does not
apparently exist as stated above.
I got a notebook, ASUS Eee 900, and it has a wireless card and loaded
the proprietary drivers on initial load.  On bootup, it does not even
see the wireless equipment.  To use the wireless, I have to boot into
the Xandros distro that comes on the drive (20GB SSD).  That is like
getting a lobotomy!  Apologies to Xandros fans, I am sure that the full
Xandros it not as crippled as ASUS' version.
Imagine a computer that will not allow you to add programs, except for
what is in the extremely limited repository ASUS has setup.  Imagine,
OOo (Open Office) at 2.0 version.  Imagine, Web is actually Firefox. 
Imagine, Mail is Thunderbird.  Even OOo is shown by other names for each
segment.  Imagine having to search long and hard for the program and the
menu where "terminal console" is listed.
I could really use some help getting HH 8.04 to recognize WLAN equipment.
Thank you!