Dan Droid from anther forum send me the following and he was right on target:
"Press the Menu button and go to Settings -> Wireless & networks -> Wi-fi Settings
- Once there, press the menu button again and select "Advanced"
- Select "Wi-fi sleep policy" and make sure "When screen turns off" is NOT selected. If it is, change it to one of the other ones."
I never knew that there was an "advanced settings option". It was set to shutdown wifi when the screen shut off. WFI had worked fine for 2 weeks and then today this started and I have no idea why. But, changing the setting definitely solved the problem.
All's well that ends well !!