Connect to WLAN automatically each time

I have a Linux friendly Prism chipset based WLAN adapter, which does work in
Linux, but I have to connect each time I log in to Mepis (installed to hd). I would like to
get it so that it would connect automatically each time I log on.

My laptop's own eth0 is fried from a thunderstorm and I don't want to waste time trying to
connect to it each time I boot. WLAN is activated when I turn on eth1 in Mepis. Even when I
save the settings, it still doen't automatically select eth1 next time I log in. How do I get
it to work automatically and skip the eth0.

William