Is there any version of Linux that you can use a wireless internet/network configuration with? I have tried Fedora Core & nothing works... i'm stumped on any other choices... any suggestions/comments?
If nothing works, then maybe there are some issues with your computer..
Is it plugged in?
Are you sure you are pressing the power button on the computer and not the monitor?
99.999% sure it's a driver issue, but since you haven't told us what kind of wireless adapter you have it's a bit hard to help. I've never had problems with wireless in linux - but I know a few people who have with certain hardware.
I have a WRT54G & linksys wireless B card working in arch linux using ndiswrapper, the arch wiki is very informative. Check out http://www.linuxcompatible.org/compatibility.html and search your card make/model.