WiFi Shield step 0??

Is there a “step 0” which should be done before loading the first test sketch?

I just got my Arduino wifi shield and got no success with my first test sketch.
I started with the page Arduino - Home
That page recommends this sketch is a good one to start with: “Scan for available networks” program from
But, I get the resulting sad output.

Initializing Wifi...
MAC: 0:0:0:0:0:0
Scanning available networks...
** Scan Networks **
number of available networks:0
This is not good because the MacAddress (presumably of my wifi module) is all zeros. There are also several wifi signals in the area, but the board can detect none of them.

As an additional check, I tried running an Arduino example sketch which had the following code
if (WiFi.status() == WL_NO_SHIELD) {
Serial.println("WiFi shield not present");

And it did come back with “WiFi shield not present”.

Does the WiFi board come totally blank with nothing installed at all? Should I do the IDE update before even testing the board with the first sketch? I thought it better to test the board first before doing a firmware upgrade, but maybe I should do firmware upgrade first?

Is there a “step 0” which should be done before loading the first test sketch?

"WiFi shield firmware and library at github The firmware for the WiFi shield has changed in Arduino IDE 1.0.4. It is strongly recommended to install this update per these instructions"

"Note that because the HDG204 and SD card share the SPI bus, only one can be active at a time. If you are using both peripherals in your program, this should be taken care of by the corresponding libraries. If you're not using one of the peripherals in your program, however, you'll need to explicitly deselect it. To do this with the SD card, set pin 4 as an output and write a high to it. For the HDG204, set digital pin 10 as a high output."

"Updating firmware on the shield
Please follow this guide to update the firmware on your shield.
See also : getting started with the WiFi shield and WiFi library reference"
Getting started: https://www.arduino.cc/en/Guide/ArduinoWiFiShield

Thanks,
Working through this.

Just before wiping the board memory I thought I would give it one more try with a basic program. And it connected to the internet! I guess the threat of wiping it's memory was enough to make it work...anyway, I will consider the formware upgrade after a little more testing.

Thanks so much,
Drew