Problem connecting laptop to network

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!

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by mikepg on 06/30/03 05:32 PM.</EM></FONT></P>