I think I know more about the problem (or other problems). Here is the list of the findings:
1. I entered BIOS and see no changes from default. NIC is enabled just as it was before
2. The Docking station is "broken". I mentioned that my cordless keyboard stopped working and that the sound no longer was going from the monitor speakers. This is the reason. The cordless keyboard transmitter was plugged into the Docking station. The cable to monitor speakers was plugged into the Audio Out in the Docking station. I also have an external hard drive plugged into a USB of the Docking station. None of the devices using the Docking station work. The only thing that Docking stations does send through to and from the computer is the video signal.
So I suppose everything started with Docking stations going down.
3. So, from this point, as much as hate not to have Docking station available (pain to connect everything every morning), I will start troubleshooting/testing without Docking stations.
4. The Network connection still does not work (the wireless does work; this is how I am communication in UT now).
"The creative process is nothing but a series of crises." Isaac Bashevis Singer
"My experience is that as soon as people are old enough to know better, they don't know anything at all." Oscar Wilde
"If a nation values anything more than freedom, it will lose its freedom; and the irony of it is that if it is comfort or money that it values more, it will lose that too." W.Somerset Maugham
