The first part of my message was just trying to definitively determine the security encryption features supported by your device under linux. I know the device is capable of wpa2 with windows but sometimes that differs under linux, and I was hoping the command would show what exactly it supports. Unfortunately, after testing the command on my wireless laptop I do not think it will prove useful.
It's possible that the wireless modules that I compiled for the new kernel need to be updated on your system to account for the change in device ids. I've uploaded the wireless modules for the new kernel for you, here:
http://www.mediafire.com/file/0zj20duzwko/wirelessmodules-2.6.31.8mod.tar.gz . As root, you should unpack these to the following directory /lib/modules/2.6.31.8/kernel/net/wireless/ (they will overwrite the existing wireless modules). I noticed that they include a libcrypt module so perhaps this will solve the problem with encrypted networks. As usual, after unpacking the modules you should run 'depmod -aq' and reboot.
Regarding the freezing issue: Hopefully it's related to the wireless modules and the above package will help alleviate that problem.
Hopefully this remedies the situation.
newt