This is basically the first time I've seen a laptop, so it's a pretty basic question. I got the display model which came with nothing but a power cord :S
My question is how do I connect to the internet?
We have a pc using a DSL router and I was told that I just need an ethernet cord to plug it in. Is that it? Also, what do I need to change on the network to allow that?
Thanks for any help!

If you have an on-board Ethernet controller on the laptop, and most do, a Cat5 Ethernet cable is all you need. You can tell if you have an on-board Ethernet controller if you have an RJ45 socket that looks like a an RJ11 telephone socket but slightly bigger.

Configure the Ethernet controller to get IP address automatically. Plug in the cable and reboot and everything should be working.

You should not need to do anything on the router providing that the router has DHCP turned on which there is no reason why it shouldn't be and the router is not configured for MAC address filtering.

Anyway, try it. If it doen't work, come back.

Stuart

Thanks for keeping that simple...it's very much appreciated.
Anyway, I'll definately try that as soon as I can. If it doesn't work, I'll be back.

Well dang.
I've realized that sitting in front of my desktop working on my notebook is illogical.
I did a bit of searching on ad hoc but I'm still not positive if that's what I need for a wireless internet.
I'd really rather not buy a wireless router and such, is there a way to use the ad hoc and have decent internet?

Ad-Hoc is for connecting two computers together via wireless. To use ad-hoc you would need a wireless adaptor in the laptop and a wireless adaptors in the desktop. Get the two computers talking to each other via Wireless. You would then need to set up Internet Connection Sharing on the desktop.

A wireless router would be better as if would be a lot simpler and far more reliable.

Stuart

If your laptop came with a Wifi adapter (most do these days) you're way better off going wireless. A wireless home router costs around $60 and has 4 Ethernet ports besides the WiFi so you can transfer your existing LAN straight over to it. You can also connect to a variety of wireless "hot spots" all over town and on the road. Be advised that by default wirelsss sets up with NO security so you should enable this ASAP. Use the WPA protocol instead of the old, less secure WEP security protocol. The wireless installation wizard that comes with WindowsXP and Vista will walk you through the steps.