Perhaps the USB dongle that was Eliza's expected means of connection to the Internet was no longer recognized by her Mac, and resetting PRAM allowed the re-recognition of connected devices (i.e. hardware recognition, rather than Network recognition).
Failure to recognize that connected devices are connected is symptom which is sometimes curable with a PRAM reset.
dkmarsh—member, FineTunedMac Co-op Board of Directors
