can't get any connections in 8.04 - help!

[Confused Vorlon]

I couldn't get 8.04 to run in live cd mode, so I started with 6.02lts

in 6.02 I was able to connect by ethernet and wireless (open network only)

I hit the update button and updated to 8.04.

delighted to see that it works ok on my laptop (averatec 3200 3225hs) however I can't get any network connection at all.

I have tried various combinations for ethernet
-dhcp
-static
-roaming (not sure what this is!)

it seems that the os just isn't talking to the network card though as I can't even ping my gateway

network is cable connected to wrt54g (the wrt54g isn't seeing the laptop, or at least isn't giving it a dhcp lease)

I get a similar story for wireless, I can specify a network (that was previously working in 6.02) but the laptop doesn't seem to negotiate a lease and I see zero bars.

I tried turning off ipv6 but that didn't seem to make any difference.

I'm new to this. My laptop is now ubuntu only (and unconnected).

Help appreciated.

as requested in the 'how to get help post', here are some details

rob@rob-laptop:~$ ifconfig

eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:40:45:19:70:a2  
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 B)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)
          Interrupt:11 Base address:0x2e00 

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback  
          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:16436  Metric:1
          RX packets:40 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:40 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0 
          RX bytes:2000 (1.9 KB)  TX bytes:2000 (1.9 KB)

ra0       Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:11:09:07:d5:4d  
          UP BROADCAST MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 B)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)

wmaster0  Link encap:UNSPEC  HWaddr 00-11-09-07-D5-4D-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00  
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 B)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)

rob@rob-laptop:~$ lspci

00:00.0 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8378 [KM400/A] Chipset Host Bridge
00:01.0 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8237 PCI Bridge
00:09.0 Network controller: RaLink RT2500 802.11g Cardbus/mini-PCI (rev 01)
00:0a.0 CardBus bridge: O2 Micro, Inc. OZ601/6912/711E0 CardBus/SmartCardBus Controller (rev 20)
00:10.0 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 80)
00:10.1 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 80)
00:10.2 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 80)
00:10.3 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. USB 2.0 (rev 82)
00:11.0 ISA bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8235 ISA Bridge
00:11.1 IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C586A/B/VT82C686/A/B/VT823x/A/C PIPC Bus Master IDE (rev 06)
00:11.5 Multimedia audio controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8233/A/8235/8237 AC97 Audio Controller (rev 50)
00:11.6 Communication controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. AC'97 Modem Controller (rev 80)
00:12.0 Ethernet controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT6102 [Rhine-II] (rev 74)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8378 [S3 UniChrome] Integrated Video (rev 01)
rob@rob-laptop:~$ lsusb
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 0000:0000  
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 0000:0000  
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 0000:0000  
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 0000:0000

rob@rob-laptop:~$ lshw -C network

WARNING: you should run this program as super-user.
  *-network:0             
       description: Wireless interface
       product: RT2500 802.11g Cardbus/mini-PCI
       vendor: RaLink
       physical id: 9
       bus info: pci@0000:00:09.0
       logical name: wmaster0
       version: 01
       serial: 00:11:09:07:d5:4d
       width: 32 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: bus_master cap_list logical ethernet physical wireless
       configuration: broadcast=yes driver=rt2500pci latency=32 module=rt2500pci multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11g
  *-network:1
       description: Ethernet interface
       product: VT6102 [Rhine-II]
       vendor: VIA Technologies, Inc.
       physical id: 12
       bus info: pci@0000:00:12.0
       logical name: eth0
       version: 74
       serial: 00:40:45:19:70:a2
       width: 32 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: bus_master cap_list ethernet physical
       configuration: broadcast=yes driver=via-rhine driverversion=1.4.3 latency=32 maxlatency=8 mingnt=3 module=via_rhine multicast=yes