One of my 2 laptops seems to have some problems that cause great inconvenience. 

(1) When I plug my ethernet cable in, it will not detect it and I am forced to stay wireless.  I am unable get a hardwired internet connection.  I can't seem to figure out how to solve this problem.  Very frustrating.

(2) It seems the main way to turn my laptop wireless switch on and off is to hold down the function key and then press the F3 key.  It only works sometimes!  When it fails to work again and again, rebooting my SYSTEM USUALLY solves this problem. 

(3) There was a time when I would plug in the ethernet cable while my wireless was working.  APPARENTLY, the hardwire connection was functioning but there was no indication of it in the task bar.  I found this out by doing speed tests and realized it was the landline connection and not the wireless that was being used.

Basically, I am trying to get my laptop to work on my home network with the ethernet cable and also trying to get the wireless network switch to do it's job consistently.  The ethernet cable works fine and I can connect WITHOUT a problem on another laptop so it must be a laptop issue and not a home router / internet problem. 

Any suggestions?  THANKS...