Connecting to wireless - IP address problems, netcfg and iwconfig

Question

I have been running into some baffling problems when connecting to wireless.  I regularly connect to an unsecured wireless with a hidden essid connection that then has some kind of ssl login.
here is the info for it:
sudo iwlist eth1 scanning
Password:                                     
eth1      Scan completed :                   
          Cell 01 - Address: 00:15:6D:AB:A4:2A
                    ESSID:""                 
                    Mode:Managed             
                    Frequency:2.412 GHz (Channel 1)
                    Quality:1/5  Signal level:-81 dBm  Noise level:-91 dBm
                    Encryption key:off                                   
                    Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 6 Mb/s   
                              9 Mb/s; 12 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s; 24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s 
                              48 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s
I can never connect with netcfg, i use the "wireless" profile as follows:
CONNECTION="wireless"
DESCRIPTION="auto connect to wireless node"
INTERFACE=eth1
SCAN="no"
SECURITY="None"
ESSID="any"
IP="dhcp"
if i do execute:
sudo netcfg wireless
then i get this:
:: wireless up                                                                                                                                       
[BUSY] dhcpcd: timed out                                                                                                                                           
- DHCP IP lease attempt failed.                                                                                                                             
                                                                                                                                                      [FAIL]
the only way i can connect is if i do a:
sudo ifconfig eth1 up
sudo iwconfig eth1 essid ""
sudo dhclient eth1
if dhclient doesnt connect, this is what it says:
sudo dhclient eth1
Internet Systems Consortium DHCP Client V3.0.6
Copyright 2004-2007 Internet Systems Consortium.
All rights reserved.                           
For info, please visit http://www.isc.org/sw/dhcp/
Listening on LPF/eth1/00:21:00:05:e1:23
Sending on   LPF/eth1/00:21:00:05:e1:23
Sending on   Socket/fallback           
DHCPREQUEST on eth1 to 255.255.255.255 port 67
DHCPREQUEST on eth1 to 255.255.255.255 port 67
DHCPDISCOVER on eth1 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 7
DHCPDISCOVER on eth1 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 21
DHCPDISCOVER on eth1 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 19
DHCPDISCOVER on eth1 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 14
No DHCPOFFERS received.                                   
Trying recorded lease 172.16.112.36                       
PING 172.16.112.3 (172.16.112.3) 56(84) bytes of data.     
--- 172.16.112.3 ping statistics ---
1 packets transmitted, 0 received, +1 errors, 100% packet loss, time 0ms
No working leases in persistent database - sleeping.
oftentimes i have to do dhclient multiple times (the same goes if i try and use dhcpcd)...can someone explain why this happens?

Answer 1

I am having the same problem on a network with a signal Quality: 5/5.
I used to use wicd without problems (pre 1.6.*).  About a month ago I started having problems with wicd.  At first I had trouble getting wicd to start, but after updating to 1.6.2 that problem went away.  I then starting having problems with connecting to the network.  It would show that it was connected and then disconnect after a few seconds (may have been a problem with dhcp).  When I started having problems with wicd I decided to wait for an update to fix it, so I don't know if something else changed during that time that might be causing this problem. 
Last night I decided to try netcfg.  I following the directions on the Arch wiki and it worked.  I connected to my WPA network with DHCP and was able to surf the net.  I then tried disconnecting and reconnecting, just to be sure that everything was working.  Ever since then I have been getting the same
:: wireless up
[BUSY] dhcpcd: timed out
- DHCP IP lease attempt failed.
[FAIL]
that was mentioned earlier. 
Since this appears to be happening with both wicd and netcfg, is it possible that this is a problem with the driver?  I am using the broadcom-wl driver and the output from lspci  is
0b:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4328 802.11a/b/g/n (rev 05)
Thanks