Connecting to the Internet Basic question

[micro_learner]

am new to computers and I am sure this question is trivial

I work in a company which basically is connected by a LAN where we need to access each computer by our username and password.
What I need to know is whether I can access the internet by hooking up the ethernet cable to my laptop.I tried doing so ..but it does not work.I tried puttting the IP address of one of the computer but it does not work either.
When I see the status of the connection.
It says it is "connected" with Speed 10Mbps.

I know that this question is trivial and my approch may be naive..but will appreciate any help whatsoever..need it be books articles or references.

We have Windows 2000 professional on both the computers

[Miz]

First, you can only access the internet if your company is paying an ISP for internet access.

Second, adding another computer into the network needs to be done by the company's IT Department (the people who are in charge of maintaining the network and the computers).

Without permission from the IT Department the answer to your question would be "no."

[snowmonkey]

micro_learner, welcome to the forum
I don't think "Miz" addressed you question fully,, I will give it a shot.

Every company may setup their network a bit different from one another but the basics are the same... when you say you get a connect link, that would not be all you need. You have to know if your company is using proxy server or not (Proxy server is a network bridge which will allow users with proper credential to use its service)...so if you get around that, then there is another question: does you IT department do a MAC address filtering? (I'm not going to explain that).... so you see it is not as simple and some may think it is, you may have to ask someone on the inside about how the network is setup and then go from there.

sorry we couldn't help much.

cheers