Why does the search box in my Basic desktop version not work?

It seems dead, just doesn't do any search at all. I called TT and was told that it may be because of using a Wi-Fi connection to the Internet, and that I should hook up with an ethernet cable. This is ridiculous: (1) the program was perfectly able to retrieve all my financial institution info over Wi-Fi, so there is no problem with Internet access, (2) some of the search results should come just from my local return copy, and (3) my laptop doesn't even have an ethernet port: does TT really put out a product that is not entirely Wi-Fi-compatible?