I'll start by quickly saying I realize there's lots of these threads online, but none have seemed to help my SITUATION so far.

I'm using an Aspire One Netbook (D250 I believe) with Win XP SP3.  I can easily connect to my wireless network at home, easily use my mobile net stick, but fail to get use of the net when I try an ethernet connection (what is available at work).

I've disabled my wireless connection when using the Ethernet.  Everything is set to automatic (IP address, etc.), I have no virus or firewall protection up at the moment, and my little icon in the bottom right is saying I have an excellent connection with 100 mbps, and I can see info being sent and received.

I've tried all the self trouble SHOOTING... what can I maybe offer you to suggest what else to investigate/fix?  Please keep in mind I'm quite illiterate with this stuff (relatively) and would need semi-step-by-step instructions.

Thanks a lot in advance.It MIGHT be in your work they have something call stickiemac or similar network security in place. Basically what this type of network security does is block a network device if the MAC address is not configure into the switch. Tried going to a friend house with internet connection (Ethernet) and try it. If it works there is nothing wrong with the Netbook. U might have to talk to your Network Admin.Today when I came home and tried it at home, I looked at the network connections.  As the ethernet found its IDs and such a third icon popped up called Internet Gateway.  There wasn't much to it, but now I clearly had a connection and it's working fine...

Why couldn't it do this before?

As to your theory about work, you could be right, but my friends there use their laptops all the time with no issue.

Is there a way to manually make that "Internet Gateway" connection thing open up?  It looks like a computer monitor with a globe behind it (just for VISUAL... since when I look at properties it doesn't say much about it all).  it's just like my computer decided, sure!  Now you can have the internet...

A few times it's asked me to label connections as safe and such (I think just wireless).  Is it maybe blocking it intentionally?To add some more... I pinged www.google.com to see if I was losing anything anywhere, and I sent and received all the packets with a 130ms average time... it seems like I'm on the verge of a connection... and then no dice. 
How do I check why my computer's blocking it?