Airport Weirdness

Okay. I am trying to run a net of two MacBook Pros on a cable modem and Airport Extreme (the big one) as a base station. It was working okay until a few minutes ago when I updated the firm ware for the airport. Then all sorts of weird stuff came about. I attempted to sign back on my net after the upgrade and wouldn't connect to Internet. The first two indicators (airport and Airport settings) were green, the third (network settings) and ISP, Internet, and server failed. Did what most people do at first. Turned off the modem and let it sit for about 5 minutes turned it back. No change. Did what most do second, turned off the Airport & the modem and let it sit for about 5 minutes. No change. Although I really had justifying theory, I turned the computer and the Airport and the modem off for five minutes. No change. Looked at the airport icon in the upper tool bar (the bar that has the Apple in case it is called something else) and found the proper net and that it was checked. Tried again. Nada. Looked at the similar place on my wife's computer in the kitchen. It also indicated a good signal and connection. My iPod touch's WiFinder also found the net. Neither of this other two could connect. Decided to try to see what would happen if I just redid the Airport, so I fired up the airport utility. It could not find ANY apple wireless devices despite both the Extreme and an Express being situated within 20 feet of the Macbook I was using. (Same with my wife's MBP in the kitchen). Turned things on and off for awhile trying to get the Utility to find the devices (this isn't the first time recently I have had problems like this with the Utility) Never did. Figuring that I was going to need to talk to someone here about this problem, I got out the ethernet cord. Without thinking, I plug the ethernet cord into the ethernet slots of the AIRPORT. The internet now works on my computer (but not the other one), the Extreme shows up on the utility, but when I try to actually work with it, I get an error message that the device needs to be plugged in or the antenna moved. Any ideas at all as to what is next?