networking woes + headaches

[jeremy jozwik <jerjoz.forums@gmail.com>]

good morning list, im having some network connection issues that i
hope i can resolve here without too much pain.

issue 1, im on a laptop and sometimes i forget to plug in my ethernet
wire. if i connect after login i cannot browse the internet. the
network connection lists eth1 as idle and sometimes send/receive but
no webpages will load. so, what is the equivalent of fedoras ./service
network restart [bash: ./service: No such file or directory] in
debian?

along with that, how the heck do i connect to a wifi!!
if /finally/ got my wifi light to activate and the device is listed in
ifconfig, wifiradar also sees a few wireless networks in range but i
see no connection button. how does one go about latching onto a
signal? im sure it is something massively simple that i am
overlooking.

thanks anyone who helps!