Maybe you can explain this...

My Laptop runs WinXP Home, AMD Athlon 1.6 Ghz.

Sometimes, I have had to take it to a cybercafe for updates and other ****. I will put in the LAN wire, configure it with a new IP address, DNS gateways, everything, and then reboot it.

This is where I get frustrated: sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't work. What could I be missing?

Also, why is it that after I put in a network cable, I have to reboot before WinXp detects it?

does it work in other places?

For the detection part try disabling then enabling the LAN in XP or from a DOS prompt type: ipconfig /renew