Wireless has been retrieved by acquiring a USB wireless thingummy which uses n wireless stuff. This just works.
Wired can be fixed by following the instructions in this post and setting an IP address for the connection to use...
right click on network manager in the notification area at the top and click on 'Edit Connections'
Click on the Wireless or Wired tab as appropriate, click on the connection you want and click on Edit
Under IPv4 settings click Add to enter this information:
IP Address - 192.168.1.xx (last 2/3 digits any available address on your network)
Subnet Mask 255.255.255.0
Gateway - 192.168.1.254
DNS Server - 192.168.1.254.
