In message <200106161734.f5GHY3Q00807@marajade.sandelman.ottawa.on.ca>,
Michael  Richardson writes:

>
>  If others have this working in adhoc mode, please let me know, and I'll
>assume my card just died.

I have Orinoco cards working in adhoc mode just fine. They have
4.something firmware.  I deliberately left them at 4.something, after
I heard reports here of difficulty getting adhoc mode to work with the
6.x firmware. (I dont recall whether there was a solution, just that
it was more hassle). 

You could try searching the archives from about August to
October of last year. sorry i can't be more precise.