[GregMonaghan]

I'll try to be as accurate as I can but I am not very computer literate. I live in a school and was recently given permission to use the schools network for internet access. The IT guy came along and set everything up, connecting the computer to the network socket in the wall via an ethernet cable, and then went away to set up whatever it is that needed doing his end. Two days later I still couldn't get internet, my computer kept saying "Cannot renew IP address, contact administrator" or something very similar. I spoke to the IT guy and he said that it was all set up his end and to try again in 24 hours.
A few days after I took my computer to a friends house and intended to use the internet there. I loaded the software (NTL) and followed it all by the book, when it ame to connecting the modem and connecting to the net I got the same problem. This time I was using USB.

I have read some things online ( I am using a 3G mobile dongle at the moment which is really not that great a solution, its very temperamental) and have made sure my DNS, DHCP and something that may have begun with R are all set up to start. I have tried going to Run ipconfig and ipconfig /renew. That doesn't seemed to have worked and when I do type that it simply comes up with a black DOS type box that disappears in less than a second.

Any help would be greatly appreciated (though any help you can give please do in layman's terms, in fact less than layman's terms would be ideal :D)

[cmeeks]

You should get something running the ipconfig
What operating system?
Are the network cards enabled?