muungwana,
You are correct, it was a kernel problem and not KDE 4.5. I looked back at my updates and noticed that kernel 2.6.33.5 was updated to 2.6.33.7 the day before I did the KDE 4.5 update. While I had tried kernel 2.6.32.17 without any luck, I went back to kernel 2.6.33.5 and all is working fine with the Broadcom interface on the Dell's. As for the ACER with the Atheros interface, i was able to use kernel 2.6.33.7. However, that I had to delete the 70-persistent-net.rules file you suggested and start over again to get it running.
Thank you very much for you assistance in getting this resolved. I hope I can return the favor someday.
Jeff
