Thank so much DroidXcon. That went great for me (missed your above post by a few min. - D'oh!) I had that same "S-off but programs acted like they had no root access" problem., but I switched USB ports, re-ran step 3, and am golden - with one exception that is not your fault.
FYI to anyone else who may have just rooted - Titanium Backup appears to have hit snag. It has SU, but FC's before it even opens (can't even do the "problems" button - if FC's immediately. Checked on the market, and tons of reviewers are saying the since an update, all it does is FC. Seems fickle, but seems like a recent problem. Hope they fix it soon.
I mostly posted to thank you, but also to let others know that I assumed it was a problem with my root, since it was the first thing I D/L'd, and I was banging my head until I decided just to give ROM mgr a try.
EDIT: I may be way off - It's like I'm half rooted. S-off, wifi hotspot, yes, ROM mgr yes, but "fix permissions" no - Titanium - has SU permission but only FCs (see above) Some thing is up, and I have reached the end of my limited knowledge.
EDIT # 2: Victory is mine! - I can't say why, but seems I had a busybox problem - I think it did not install I manually downloaded it from the market, and seemed that all was fixed. Then, this morning, the dev. fixed Titanium with an update, and BOOM - works perfectly. The irony is, I think, that had TiBack not had an FC problem, it would have installed/updated busybox with the"problems" button, and I likely would not have even known (or cared) that my busybox was effed when i finished rooting.
Thanks.