Internet connection no longer works

Hi

Two days ago i purchased windows XP PRO and installed it
on a freshly partitioned harddrive. After the
installation, it automatically set up the internet
connection and everything worked fine. I had rebooted the
computer several times while installing other software
and drivers, and the internet continued to work fine.

The next day, my internet connection no longer worked. I
tried re-doing the network connection wizard, but each
time would say that an error has occured, and the network
has not been configured.

I've tried doing a power-cycle on everything,
I've tried installing a new NIC,
I've tried restoring the XP settings i had when i first
had my internet working.

All the lights are on in my switch and NIC card, and the
Local Area connection status says it is connected, but
there is no bytes being sent or received, and under the
support tab, everything says it is Unavailable.

I believe I've narrowed the problem down to one or both
of these things:

-when my computer boots, it asks me to install the "VIA
Bus Master IDE". It cant find this driver anywhere on the
Asus VIA CD, or anywhere in the windows XP cd. I dont
actually recall this "hardware found" problem to have
been around before my internet stopped working.

-in the device manager, there is an exclamation mark on
the icon of "Realtek RTL8139 Family PCI Fast Ethernet NIC
#2 Packet Schedular Miniport" and the "WAN Miniport (IP) -
Packet Scheduler Miniport"
when i click on either of the properties for these,
they both say the device is not working properly. Beats
me how to fix this. I've tried uninstalling the "Realtek
RTL8139 Family PCI Fast Ethernet NIC", but the other two
(listed above) will not uninstall, they say they are
needed to boot the computer.

anyone have any ideas? The network is definately,
definately connected, so it must be a computer problem.
FYI im using a D-Link ethernet card, and i'm running on a
DSL connection through Telus.

Thanks,
Graham McElgunn