Well, I got a solution to this problem from the yellow dog forums.
In case anyone else is having this problem, try this:
Instead of just typing iwconfig eth0, or any of the other commands...preface it with /sbin/...
so, example:
/sbin/iwconfig eth0
should work fine. It did for me, at least. I have no idea why this works (total newb, remember) but it does. Anyone care to explain why it did? Remember, teach a man to fish, blah blah blah.
