It is a far better solution to use your mobo-down 10/100/1000 port or PCI wired NIC with a wireless access point, such as: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833704048 This architecture eliminates all potential Debian wireless NIC headaches. It works in any mode: AP, client, bridge, repeater.
Thanks for pointing this out, Stan, I'm just facing a similar situation. This topic reminds me of the old "winmodem vs serial modem" issue, and of the more recent "USB vs Ethernet DSL router". The more we can get rid of potential driver & firmware problems, using "driver independent" hardware like this, the better :-) Andrew