Well I finally fixed this thing. After troubleshooting with all of the obvious stuff, I went back to check any updates since the day it gave me trouble. There was a windows update on the list the evening before I had all of the trouble.
I found Microsoft.Net Framework 4.6.1
When I right clicked to uninstall it , it opened a window that also offered a "repair" option. I figured I'd try the repair before trying the uninstall. It took a few minutes.
I rebooted and it showed both the hard wired and the wireless were properly connected after the start up connected. Just to make sure, I disconnected the wireless and sure enough Im on the hard wired LAN / Ethernet connection as I write this.
Hope this helps someone else before they go buying another cable as I did. Or worse, before they buy another computer or replace an ethernet port needlessly.
Regards
Madison