Interestingly, for my problem looks like iwconfig works correctly every 4th time. Every other time it truncates to just the first letter. matt@ubuntu:/etc/network$ sudo iwconfig eth1 essid MandSL matt@ubuntu:/etc/network$ iwconfig lo no wireless extensions. eth0 no wireless extensions. eth1 IEEE 802.11b/g ESSID:"M" Nickname:"Broadcom 4306" Mode:Managed Access Point: Invalid RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off Link Quality=0/100 Signal level=-256 dBm Noise level=-256 dBm Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0 Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0 matt@ubuntu:/etc/network$ sudo iwconfig eth1 essid MandSLlll matt@ubuntu:/etc/network$ iwconfig lo no wireless extensions. eth0 no wireless extensions. eth1 IEEE 802.11b/g ESSID:"M" Nickname:"Broadcom 4306" Mode:Managed Access Point: Invalid RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off Link Quality=0/100 Signal level=-256 dBm Noise level=-256 dBm Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0 Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0 matt@ubuntu:/etc/network$ sudo iwconfig eth1 essid MandSLllljkljkdfa matt@ubuntu:/etc/network$ iwconfig lo no wireless extensions. eth0 no wireless extensions. eth1 IEEE 802.11b/g ESSID:"MandSLllljkljkdfa" Nickname:"Broadcom 4306" Mode:Managed Access Point: Invalid RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off Link Quality=0/100 Signal level=-256 dBm Noise level=-256 dBm Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0 Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0 matt@ubuntu:/etc/network$ sudo iwconfig eth1 essid MandSLllljkljkdf matt@ubuntu:/etc/network$ iwconfig lo no wireless extensions. eth0 no wireless extensions. eth1 IEEE 802.11b/g ESSID:"M" Nickname:"Broadcom 4306" Mode:Managed Access Point: Invalid RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off Link Quality=0/100 Signal level=-256 dBm Noise level=-256 dBm Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0 Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0 matt@ubuntu:/etc/network$ sudo iwconfig eth1 essid MandSLllljkljkdff matt@ubuntu:/etc/network$ iwconfig lo no wireless extensions. eth0 no wireless extensions. eth1 IEEE 802.11b/g ESSID:"M" Nickname:"Broadcom 4306" Mode:Managed Access Point: Invalid RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off Link Quality=0/100 Signal level=-256 dBm Noise level=-256 dBm Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0 Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0 matt@ubuntu:/etc/network$ sudo iwconfig eth1 essid MandSLllljkljkdffasd matt@ubuntu:/etc/network$ matt@ubuntu:/etc/network$ iwconfig lo no wireless extensions. eth0 no wireless extensions. eth1 IEEE 802.11b/g ESSID:"M" Nickname:"Broadcom 4306" Mode:Managed Access Point: Invalid RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off Link Quality=0/100 Signal level=-256 dBm Noise level=-256 dBm Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0 Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0 matt@ubuntu:/etc/network$ sudo iwconfig eth1 essid MandSLllljkljkdffasd matt@ubuntu:/etc/network$ iwconfig lo no wireless extensions. eth0 no wireless extensions. eth1 IEEE 802.11b/g ESSID:"MandSLllljkljkdffasd" Nickname:"Broadcom 4306" Mode:Managed Access Point: Invalid RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off Link Quality=0/100 Signal level=-256 dBm Noise level=-256 dBm Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0 Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0 matt@ubuntu:/etc/network$ sudo iwconfig eth1 essid MandSLllljkljkdffasd matt@ubuntu:/etc/network$ iwconfig lo no wireless extensions. eth0 no wireless extensions. eth1 IEEE 802.11b/g ESSID:"M" Nickname:"Broadcom 4306" Mode:Managed Access Point: Invalid RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off Link Quality=0/100 Signal level=-256 dBm Noise level=-256 dBm Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0 Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0 matt@ubuntu:/etc/network$ sudo iwconfig eth1 essid MandSLllljkljkdffasd matt@ubuntu:/etc/network$ iwconfig lo no wireless extensions. eth0 no wireless extensions. eth1 IEEE 802.11b/g ESSID:"M" Nickname:"Broadcom 4306" Mode:Managed Access Point: Invalid RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off Link Quality=0/100 Signal level=-256 dBm Noise level=-256 dBm Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0 Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0 matt@ubuntu:/etc/network$ sudo iwconfig eth1 essid MandSLllljkljkdffasd matt@ubuntu:/etc/network$ iwconfig lo no wireless extensions. eth0 no wireless extensions. eth1 IEEE 802.11b/g ESSID:"M" Nickname:"Broadcom 4306" Mode:Managed Access Point: Invalid RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off Link Quality=0/100 Signal level=-256 dBm Noise level=-256 dBm Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0 Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0 matt@ubuntu:/etc/network$ sudo iwconfig eth1 essid MandSLllljkljkdffasd matt@ubuntu:/etc/network$ iwconfig lo no wireless extensions. eth0 no wireless extensions. eth1 IEEE 802.11b/g ESSID:"MandSLllljkljkdffasd" Nickname:"Broadcom 4306" Mode:Managed Access Point: Invalid RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off Link Quality=0/100 Signal level=-256 dBm Noise level=-256 dBm Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0 Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0 matt@ubuntu:/etc/network$ sudo iwconfig eth1 essid MandSLllljkljkdffasd matt@ubuntu:/etc/network$ iwconfig lo no wireless extensions. eth0 no wireless extensions. eth1 IEEE 802.11b/g ESSID:"M" Nickname:"Broadcom 4306" Mode:Managed Access Point: Invalid RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off Link Quality=0/100 Signal level=-256 dBm Noise level=-256 dBm Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0 Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0 matt@ubuntu:/etc/network$ sudo iwconfig eth1 essid MandSLllljkljkdffasd matt@ubuntu:/etc/network$ iwconfig lo no wireless extensions. eth0 no wireless extensions. eth1 IEEE 802.11b/g ESSID:"M" Nickname:"Broadcom 4306" Mode:Managed Access Point: Invalid RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off Link Quality=0/100 Signal level=-256 dBm Noise level=-256 dBm Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0 Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0 matt@ubuntu:/etc/network$ sudo iwconfig eth1 essid MandSLllljkljkdffasd matt@ubuntu:/etc/network$ iwconfig lo no wireless extensions. eth0 no wireless extensions. eth1 IEEE 802.11b/g ESSID:"M" Nickname:"Broadcom 4306" Mode:Managed Access Point: Invalid RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off Link Quality=0/100 Signal level=-256 dBm Noise level=-256 dBm Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0 Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0 matt@ubuntu:/etc/network$ sudo iwconfig eth1 essid MandSLllljkljkdffasd matt@ubuntu:/etc/network$ iwconfig lo no wireless extensions. eth0 no wireless extensions. eth1 IEEE 802.11b/g ESSID:"MandSLllljkljkdffasd" Nickname:"Broadcom 4306" Mode:Managed Access Point: Invalid RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off Link Quality=0/100 Signal level=-256 dBm Noise level=-256 dBm Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0 Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0