How to get my wireless adapter working on Linux?

I just installed ubuntu on my old laptop, which had a usb wireless adapter connected to it when it was installed with windows xp. When I got linux, everything was wiped from the computer, including the driver for the wireless card.

I have googled trying to find what to do to get my Netgear WNA1100 adapter to work on linux, and I have come to the conclusion that I needed a driver called ath9k_htc, which i downloaded and installed on the computer. Now I don't have the slightest idea what to do to get it working with my actual physical usb adapter. it is detected by linux, but that is the extent of its operation so far...it will not connect to a network, i dont know how to get it to connect to a network, I don't even know much about linux at all, so if you have some advice you could give me I would be grateful

Thank you for your time.