Help! Can't connect with new laptop

Just took delivery of a Sony NR21 Vaio laptop today, Intel T2330 Dual Core, 2048Mb RAM, 200Gb Hard Drive, Vista Home Premium.

At the moment we have an old non-wireless laptop connected via Ethernet to cable broadband. We're awaiting delivery of a Buffalo DSL router in a few days which will hopefully enable us to use the broadband connection for both computers. However, I had the bright idea of unplugging the old laptop and trying to use the cable modem directly with the new laptop.

I had the cable modem drivers on an old disc, so I put that in, plugged in the ethernet connection and asked Vista to establish a new connection. So through the motions it goes, do I want to set up the Vaio Network, yes, yes, go ahead.

End result. When I start up IE the computer tells me it's offline. Then it tries to dial up the broadband connection. Of course it fails, there's no phone line attached. Then I ask Vista to Repair The Connection. It eventually tells me that Windows can't do that.

I have a terrible feeling that I've screwed up the network configuration. Is there a simple way of putting things right?

 

With a cable modem, yhou need no drivers. All you need to do is plug in the cable to the new Sony, make sure you have powered off the modem for 30 seconds or more when changing the connections, and it should connect.