LOL – finally fixed issues with the home network and router introduction…hopefully DHCP renewals will be taken care of with this firmware upgrade, and as for the laptop…well, apparently the only reason I wasn’t getting back to the network was because suddenly my card is picking up five different ones and was waiting for me to choose which one to connect to! 
Pulling things offline for just a moment so that I can reset my access point and walk through the security steps from the beginning to ensure that my network isn’t wide open for anybody else…