Ubuntu installation trouble -- dhcp renewal fails

[Jeremy Brown]

List,

I've been itching to try Ubuntu on my work laptop for a while, and my 
Fedora install just stopped working, so I figured it was time to grab an 
install disc.

Unfortunately I've had trouble getting networking to work correctly.  My 
laptop is an IBM Thinkpad T41.  It has a Centrino wireless card and an 
Intel gigabit ethernet card (I think supported by the "e1000" driver, 
but I'm not sure).  I typically use wireless, so I tried to configure 
that first.  I entered my network's essid and wep key, but was unable to 
get a response from the DHCP server.  Thinking that there might be a 
problem with the wireless drivers, I plugged a hot wire into my system 
and attempted to get an IP address that way...but, same problem, the 
DHCP request timed out.

I installed Debian Testing on here a few months ago and don't recall 
having any problem getting the wired connection to work (of course, the 
wireless didn't work because Debian doesn't ship with Centrino drivers 
AFAIK).

Anyone have a similar experience?  Or know what could be causing this?

Thanks in advance,

Jeremy