Diagnosing Wireless Issues

I have an Acer Aspire AS1410-2285 Diamond Black Intel Celeron SU2300(1.2GHz) 11.6" 2GB Memory 160GB HDD Netbook running 10.04 netbook remix. I've noticed in the past few weeks it's been running quite hot (the fan is on a lot). In the past 2 weeks I've noticed that my wireless would connect to a given network and, periodically,speeds would slow to a halt after 1-2 minutes. A restart would always fix this issue.

This afternoon I heard the fan whirring away and felt the computer was getting quite hot (on the upper boundary of what I'd consider normal for any laptop with a plastic case). I plugged in the computer and my wireless disconnected. The radio on/off indicator button showed my wireless was now turned off. The hard switch on the computer did not help. Nor did a few restarts.

I fear somehow I burnt out the wireless and want to isolate the issue. What path might you follow to diagnose this? Any other checks you might do to revive the wireless capabilities of this computer?