"I stepped outside, messed with the USB dongle to make sure it was seated in the cradle properly and went back in to check it. Nope...
"Deader'n a stump.
"I practiced the true definition of insanity several times before I decided to slide in a live CD and see if I couldn't diagnose the problem. Good ol' "iwconfig" will tell you volumes combined with some stratigic pinging.
"While the Mepis CD loaded, I made sure the mid-line connections were good and that I had a solid connection at the USB port behind the machine. It couldn't have been any tighter if I seated it with a three pound hammer."