richUK, thanks for the heads up! You are indeed correct, but I’m quite sure that I got the number from somewhere in the site that I can’t find again right now… 
I just called in and I’m in awe with the efficiency and sympathy of the attendant. Although speaking from the Caribbean, her mix of spanish and portuguese was pretty good and I got all the info I needed. Good news is that if I can find a local electronics store capable of diagnosing for sure that only the network port is compromised, my WDTV Live Hub is still under warranty and WD will replace the defective piece with no cost. If that’s true or not I don’t know, but the perspective is very encouraging.
If only I had the patience to wait… I just bought the wifi adapter… gonna have to get used to GBs being transferred at a third of the previous speed for now, I guess. 
Thanks, folks.
