I can confirm that wpa has worked for me for years. So, it is likely a configuration issue or a driver problem. I'll try to help, but hopefully our wireless experts will chip in. First, did you configure your wireless with the linux driver or did you choose ndiswrapper? Second, if you are comfortable in a console (text window), type: lspci | grep -i wireless in a console. What have you done to troubleshoot? It is difficult even for the experts if there is not enough detail.
Galen