wpa_supplicant v0.5.5, WPA client encryption
from http://hostap.epitest.fi/wpa_supplicant/
compiled September 2006

wpa_supplicant provides WPA wifi encryption support to the following drivers, with the appropriate commandline option:

hostap = Host AP driver (Intersil Prism2/2.5/3)
madwifi = MADWiFi (Atheros)
atmel = atmelwlandriver (this driver not available for Puppy2)
wext = generic interface supported by some other drivers (eg. bcm43xx-softmac) and ndiswrapper
ipw = Intel PRO/Wireless ipw2100/2200/3945 ... although with recent Wireless Extensions, use "wext" instead of "ipw".

The Ralink wifi drivers are the only Linux drivers which support WPA encryption without the assistance of this utility.

One of the most basic WPA configurations, WPA-PSK/TKIP, has been tested with this package in Puppy Linux successfully.
So these settings are provided in the default configuration file, /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf
Many other example configurations can be found in /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf-examples.

And even more example configurations can be found in /root/my-applications/wpa_helper_package/
These originally came from http://www.bughost.org/ipw/wpa_helper_package.tar


INSTRUCTIONS (... let's assume madwifi driver)
wpa_supplicant takes care of all wifi driver configuration.  The setup commands you would otherwise use with your wifi driver are completely replaced by these.  So when using wpa_supplicant, iwconfig is unnecessary.

Modify the configuration file, /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf, to include your SSID and Personal Security Key (PSK).
Or for different WPA configurations, use /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf-example as a template to modify the configuration file futher.

## load your driver
modprobe ath_pci
## bring up the wireless interface, unconfigured
ifconfig ath0 up
## now start wpa_supplicant
## first remove stale wpa_supplicant file if it exists
rm /var/run/wpa_supplicant/*
## start wpa_supplicant with debugging enabled (-dd) in case of problems
wpa_supplicant -i ath0 -D madwifi -c /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf -dd
## wpa_supplicant may take about 30 seconds to negotiate the connection
## connection is successful when you see "EAPOL: startWhen --> 0"
## now we can get an IP address. Open a second xterminal,
## first remove stale dhcpcd file if it exists
rm /etc/dhcpc/*.pid
dhcpcd -t 30 -h puppypc -d ath0


A script containing these commands, /root/my-applications/bin/wpa-connect, is provided to automate this process.
Just modify the script to include your wifi driver type and wifi interface name.
Notice that the wpa_supplicant process is run in the background with "-B", since we don't need to see output.

TROUBLESHOOTING
Your PSK passphrase is converted to hex digits by a separate utility, wpa_passphrase.
If there are problems you can pre-convert the passphrase to hex key as such -
wpa_passphrase <ssid> <passphrase>
... and the resultant hex key entered into the configuration file instead of the passphrase.