James, I tried your suggestion...it brings me to the same basic gui (entitled "Network settings") that I described earlier. My connections are listed and I can change their properties, but I don't get access to a list of available wireless access points.

Here's a link to the download site for NetworkManager that shows what I'm expecting to see:
http://http://linux.softpedia.com/ge...ger-6451.shtml

It appears like I should be able to click on the network plug icon and see the list of available wireless networks, but all I see is information relating to the wired network.