Linux Mint Gloria 7 / Ubuntu 9.10 Broadband Connection Problem

[honeybee]

A few weeks ago I had installed Linux Mint Gloria 7, based on Ubuntu 9.04 on my Windows desktop to make it a dual boot system. My broadband internet connection works off the network connections in Windows. After setting up the connection in Linux Mint 7, it was successfully able to connect to the internet. So far so good.

I had ordered the Ubuntu 9.10 CD, which arrived a couple of weeks after I had installed Mint 7. So one morning I decided to overwrite the Mint 7 installation with Ubuntu 9.10. The installation went fine, I booted into Ubuntu, but now I find that the internet connection doesn't work. I followed the exact same steps as I did in Mint 7 to set up the connection in Ubuntu. But no luck.

Has anyone else had a similar issue?

On a sidenote, can I install Linux Mint/Ubuntu on a laptop (new/refurbished)? Will the basic functionality such as card reader, sound card, video card, network on a laptop work with Mint/Ubuntu out of the box?

.