wireless card not being detected on fresh install

[burger]

i just installed debian after about 2 weeks of using ubuntu after a friend suggested switching, and it's not detecting my wireless card in the network settings. i'm new at linux so try to keep it simple if you can please, and thanks in advance for any help

i read the sticky about this and here's the info it said i should provide

lspci -knn

00:00.0 Host bridge [0600]: Intel Corporation Mobile 4 Series Chipset Memory Controller Hub [8086:2a40] (rev 07)
	Kernel driver in use: agpgart-intel
	Kernel modules: intel-agp
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation Mobile 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller [8086:2a42] (rev 07)
00:02.1 Display controller [0380]: Intel Corporation Mobile 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller [8086:2a43] (rev 07)
00:1a.0 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #4 [8086:2937] (rev 03)
	Kernel driver in use: uhci_hcd
	Kernel modules: uhci-hcd
00:1a.1 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #5 [8086:2938] (rev 03)
	Kernel driver in use: uhci_hcd
	Kernel modules: uhci-hcd
00:1a.7 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #2 [8086:293c] (rev 03)
	Kernel driver in use: ehci_hcd
	Kernel modules: ehci-hcd
00:1b.0 Audio device [0403]: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) HD Audio Controller [8086:293e] (rev 03)
	Kernel driver in use: HDA Intel
	Kernel modules: snd-hda-intel
00:1c.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) PCI Express Port 1 [8086:2940] (rev 03)
	Kernel driver in use: pcieport-driver
	Kernel modules: shpchp
00:1c.1 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) PCI Express Port 2 [8086:2942] (rev 03)
	Kernel driver in use: pcieport-driver
	Kernel modules: shpchp
00:1d.0 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1 [8086:2934] (rev 03)
	Kernel driver in use: uhci_hcd
	Kernel modules: uhci-hcd
00:1d.1 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2 [8086:2935] (rev 03)
	Kernel driver in use: uhci_hcd
	Kernel modules: uhci-hcd
00:1d.2 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3 [8086:2936] (rev 03)
	Kernel driver in use: uhci_hcd
	Kernel modules: uhci-hcd
00:1d.3 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #6 [8086:2939] (rev 03)
	Kernel driver in use: uhci_hcd
	Kernel modules: uhci-hcd
00:1d.7 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #1 [8086:293a] (rev 03)
	Kernel driver in use: ehci_hcd
	Kernel modules: ehci-hcd
00:1e.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge [8086:2448] (rev 93)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge [0601]: Intel Corporation ICH9M LPC Interface Controller [8086:2919] (rev 03)
00:1f.2 SATA controller [0106]: Intel Corporation ICH9M/M-E SATA AHCI Controller [8086:2929] (rev 03)
	Kernel driver in use: ahci
	Kernel modules: ahci
00:1f.3 SMBus [0c05]: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) SMBus Controller [8086:2930] (rev 03)
	Kernel driver in use: i801_smbus
	Kernel modules: i2c-i801
00:1f.6 Signal processing controller [1180]: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) Thermal Subsystem [8086:2932] (rev 03)
02:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. Device [10ec:8171] (rev 10)
03:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8101E/RTL8102E PCI Express Fast Ethernet controller [10ec:8136] (rev 02)
	Kernel driver in use: r8169
	Kernel modules: r8169

lsmod

Module                  Size  Used by
ipv6                  235396  16 
ppdev                   6468  0 
parport_pc             22500  0 
lp                      8164  0 
parport                31084  3 ppdev,parport_pc,lp
loop                   12748  0 
joydev                  8480  0 
serio_raw               4740  0 
uvcvideo               45800  0 
snd_hda_intel         325720  0 
pcspkr                  2432  0 
i2c_i801                7920  0 
psmouse                32336  0 
compat_ioctl32          1312  1 uvcvideo
snd_pcm                62660  1 snd_hda_intel
snd_seq                41456  0 
snd_timer              17800  2 snd_pcm,snd_seq
snd_seq_device          6380  1 snd_seq
wmi                     6440  0 
i2c_core               19828  1 i2c_i801
snd                    45636  5 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm,snd_seq,snd_timer,snd_seq_device
soundcore               6368  1 snd
video                  16464  0 
videodev               27520  1 uvcvideo
v4l1_compat            12260  2 uvcvideo,videodev
snd_page_alloc          7816  2 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm
output                  2912  1 video
button                  6096  0 
intel_agp              22524  1 
agpgart                28808  1 intel_agp
battery                10180  0 
ac                      4196  0 
evdev                   8000  8 
ext3                  105576  1 
jbd                    39476  1 ext3
mbcache                 7108  1 ext3
sg                     26964  0 
sr_mod                 13316  0 
cdrom                  30176  1 sr_mod
sd_mod                 22200  3 
usbhid                 35872  0 
hid                    33184  1 usbhid
ff_memless              4392  1 usbhid
ahci                   23596  2 
libata                140448  1 ahci
scsi_mod              129548  4 sg,sr_mod,sd_mod,libata
dock                    8304  1 libata
r8169                  27876  0 
ehci_hcd               28428  0 
uhci_hcd               18672  0 
usbcore               118224  5 uvcvideo,usbhid,ehci_hcd,uhci_hcd
thermal                15228  0 
processor              32576  3 thermal
fan                     4196  0 
thermal_sys            10856  4 video,thermal,processor,fan

uname -r

2.6.26-2-686

---EDIT
i did some looking around and tried a few things and i think i may be getting somewhere.
here's the output from what i've tried so far:

iwconfig

lo        no wireless extensions.

eth0      no wireless extensions.

iwconfig eth0 essid (name of network)

Error for wireless request "Set ESSID" (8B1A) :
    SET failed on device eth0 ; Operation not supported.

[super-biscuit]

Are you trying this as root or the regular user?
Have you updated synaptic by adding the backports repository?
Have you enabled contrib and non-free to the standard debian repository and the backports repository?
have you looked at the dmesg output to see what the device is known as?
Have you used that information with apropos and/or synaptic to find a driver or firmware?
Have you looked in /lib/modules/$KERNEL/kernel/drivers?