ethernet probs

[mcmiller]

ive had my computer plugged in using a usb cable to the modem, firday night thought i'd change it over to ethernet plugged it in and the pc said it was connecting, it took forever and then when it did connect it said there is a lack of connectivity the internet might not blah blah blah.
I changed it back and then that did the same i finally found that the usb drivers had become corrupted so i reinstalled them.
I tried uninstalling the ethernet drivers and reinstallin them, tried the drivers on cd which came with mobo as well but still cant get it to work, is there any way i can manually configure the connection myself and put the ip address in manually?

[Funkstar]

what modem is it? What is the ISP? are you on cable or dsl?

[mcmiller]

cable, ntl, im not sure the make of the modem but its the standard ntl cable modem im guessing ambit maybe as thats the name of driver for it

[Funkstar]

onc you change over the ethernet, have you switched the modem off then on. I seem to remember it needs to be re-started when changing interface.

I don't get NTL up here so don't have a lot of experience with it.