Eureka! The main issue was that I connected the ethernet to the device that looks like a router-switch combo (with 4 ethernet ports), instead of to the "Smart WiFi" wireless access point, with only one inconspicuous open port. Gotta love it.
Now I'm working on updating the firmware to see if I'll be able to use it as a small router. I'm having some trouble with it, but I'll try going back to not using the UEFI firmware and see if that makes a difference. At the current point, bwfm does not show up in dmesg, and fw_update doesn't pull its firmware. I'll be able to provide more information and a dmesg output this coming Wednesday. Thanks, William Long
