potential newbie with questions (please be gentle)

[Maurice McCarthy]

On 14 July 2010 17:47, Jerry Bolt <jerry.bolt at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> With that out of the way...  Maurice, I posted what you asked for but
> I am going to post it again, in the event it got buried.
>
...
> Device: wlan0
> Type; 802.11 WiFi
> Driver: b43
> State: disconnected

This indicates that you wireless device is  a Broadcom with a b43
chipset and that requires firmware made by Broadcom. It has come up
before as I found this by Google
http://www.linuxforums.org/forum/wireless-internet/121365-wireless-hardware-problems-wubi-ubuntu.html
this link contains another to  http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/b43
You may not need to do this work by hand any more - see below.

>
> May I add...  I am trying out Linux because I want a more stable and
> efficient OS than Windows.  However, at this point the start up is
> beginning to be a hassle that I am growing weary of... or I am just
> stupid. ;-)
>

No it is a hardware compatibility problem.

Happily if you do Applications - Ubuntu Software Center and enter b43
in the search box on top right hand then you can install b43-fwcutter.
With a bit of luck this will cure your problem.

Good Luck!
Maurice

PS
I'm off to work in a few hours for a fortnight, so I may not be able
to reply too readily for a while.