Nevermind oh nevermind .. the 2 year old struck again as grubby little fingers found the keystrokes fn-f2 apparently to shut off the wireless .. anyway, I've figured it out.
Have an Intel Pro Wireless 2200BG that suddenly won't recognize any wireless signals.   How do I tell if it's dead or just not responding.  I've rebooted a couple of times and it hasn't reset.   It just stopped working yesterday afternoon.   It's on an inspiron 700m laptop    
wireless suddenly not working