Absent wifi on live usb

[Searchernow]

Thanks very much for your prompt reply.

I booted into the usb live and "rfkill list all" did give me the info that dell network was not soft or hard blocked.
I looked again at panel and no network listed, same as before.

Looking at the ubuntu help links you included just sent my stress level into the red zone, I couldn't make any sense of it - I've had what feels like a very long week of all this, I need to take a break, stick with windows for now and come back to linux when I'm refreshed.

Thanks again, I'll let you know how I get on.