do you have it set up for dhcp? If not then make it a dhcp server. That way it will hand out IP's. Make sure it's connected to the physical network correctly and go into your network connections and check the IP config on your laptop and make sure it's set up for a DHCP server so it can accept the IP's your server will hand out. Check that and see if it works and if not then post back and let us know what else is going on.