The gui system-config-network dialogue box returns "Determining IP information for wlan0...failed after about three minutes. The icon on the tab for networks does not even highlight wireless networks and does not automatically bring up the dialogue box that asks if I want to connect to any of the listed networks. The network daemon is running and even "service network restart" nicely produces:
Shutting down interface wlan0: [ OK ]
Shutting down loopback interface: [ OK ]
Bringing up loopback interface: [ OK ]

Some details
I am unsure whether this is pertinent but:
$ lspci -n
produces
00:00.0 0600: 8086:2a00 (rev 03)
00:02.0 0300: 8086:2a02 (rev 03)
00:02.1 0380: 8086:2a03 (rev 03)
00:1b.0 0403: 8086:284b (rev 03)
00:1c.0 0604: 8086:283f (rev 03)
00:1d.0 0c03: 8086:2830 (rev 03)
00:1d.1 0c03: 8086:2831 (rev 03)
00:1d.2 0c03: 8086:2832 (rev 03)
00:1d.7 0c03: 8086:2836 (rev 03)
00:1e.0 0604: 8086:2448 (rev f3)
00:1f.0 0601: 8086:2815 (rev 03)
00:1f.1 0101: 8086:2850 (rev 03)
00:1f.2 0106: 8086:2829 (rev 03)
00:1f.3 0c05: 8086:283e (rev 03)
01:00.0 0200: 168c:001c (rev 01)
02:01.0 0200: 10ec:8139 (rev 10)

$ uname -a
returns
Linux localhost.localdomain 2.6.27.5-117.fc10.i686 #1 SMP Tue Nov 18 12:19:59 EST 2008 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux

I should mention that for about two months after I installed the fedora, I was getting connected very easily at libraries, coffee shops and the like. The gui dialogue box would come up and show me my choices. I should also mention that two more things: the ifconfig command is showing the wla0 and that my eth0 is also working perfectly for both LAN and internet.

I am in advance grateful and hope to receive help and pointers.

Often, when things like this happen, it will be something like accidentally hitting a button or keycombo or slide switch that turns the card off.

For example, one Acer I have just has a key--if I accidentally hit it, although there are no LED indications, the card stops working.

Some useful commands are:

iwconfig - wireless setting tool
iwlist wlan0 scan - to find local networks.
lspcmcia & lsusb - cousins of lspci