Laptop won't connect's to networb but not internet!!

[mikepg]

I'll start off by saying that I'm new hear and I had a little trouble finding a forum that this post would fit in. If it isn't in the right forum, please let me know and I'll post it somewhere else.

I just purchased a laptop (toshiba satellite 2455-S305) and am having problems connecting to the internet. It has a realtek RTL8139/810x Family Fast Ethernet NIC card built in. The I got the computer and plugged it into my Linksys router and it would not connect. I tried going through the network installation wizards and configuring the TCP/IP settings but with no lick. I figured that maybe one of the guys working at Circuit City must have messed it up since it was the display. I formated the hard drive and started with at fresh installation of windows XP home. Same problem. When I check the status of the network, It shows a connection but it never recieves any packets. I thought that it may have been a conflict with the router so I plugged it directly into the cable modem. no luck. I put the laptop on a netgear FS108 switch and another box on it to transfer some files. I could do that with no problem but I didn't have the switch plugged into the router. I also tried buying a PCMCIA Network card and disabling the realtek and no luck with that either. Toshiba is absolutely no help and Circuit says to contact the manufacturer (really glad I spent $300 extra on the warrenty!) Please any help will be greatly apprectated! Thanks a lot!
BTW, I have a MIS degree so I do know a little about what I'm doing.

 

[FAM]

Have you tried pinging the router? ie
ping ip address
or
ping router name

 

[gatsby]

I've had the same problem with XP showing a connection, but not receiving any packets. Your realtek is obviously working since you can transfer files. I suspect that there is a conflict between XP and the router. As fam said, perhaps you can ping the router? I'd bet that you can't. Have you tried connecting directly to the modem and rebooting? This worked for me, but I just had to do a cold reboot several times before it realized that it was connected. When I go to hibernate and disconnect the network cable, at startup it still indicates that it's connected. Sorry I'm not much help.

 

[MasterofNone]

Not sure if your cable modem works the same as mine, but in order for me to connect a new pc to my cable, I first have to enable its MAC address with the cable modem (obviously need an authorised pc to do so or ring ISP).