Doesn't sound promising.
So if you hit 'Connections' and just leave it for a while, it does the 'scanning' thing and fails to find anything?
Seems bad as mine can generally find a few (it has a great wireless range). If you are in the middle of a town, can you take it there to see if it can find the cafe's and shops that have them?
It just seems a bit concerning that it cannot find any and it would be bad if the wireless was broken.