Wireless Issue -Dell Vostro 1520 - Fedora 11 (Intel WiFi Link 5100)

Since I have had large amount of hassles getting the wireless working with Intel WiFi Link 5100 wifi card on the Dell Vostro 1520 (wouldn't be the only affected model).

Problem:

Problem is that NetworkManager cannot find out if the killswitch is turned on or off so it assumes its off y default and disables the wireless.

Some other methods that half worked (could scan for available networks but could not join them) are:
wlassistant
wpa_supplicant (directly with config files)
traditional networking for wireless

To get working via all programs (NetworkManager included):

Step 1: Install the firmware of the wireless (iwl5000-firmware):
yum install iwl5000-firmware -y

Step 2: Disable dell_laptop kernel module:
modprobe -rv dell_laptop

Step 3: Stop dell_laptop kernel module from being automatically loaded on boot:
echo "blacklist dell_laptop" >> /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf

Step 4: Start/Restart NetworkManager
/etc/init.d/NetworkManager restart
or
service NetworkManager restart

Step 5: Connect to a wireless network to verify all is working.

Hope this helps if you hit the same problem.

Special thanks to Kelly Reed.