No need to apologise jaywit, we all need to start somewhere. According to the specsheet for that particular Acer:
Networking Network adapter - Ethernet, Fast Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet, IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11g
Which is the same spec as my ECS MB and as we see from the following picture:

The Network adapter shows up as VIA Rhine II fast ethernet adapter. Go into your device manager and see if it has network adapter listed.
To do this in vista goto: Start, Control Panel, System, Device Manager. What does it say for Network adapter?

"One cannot be betrayed if one has no people."