Connecting laptop to another isp using Ethernet

[#1]

Hi there! Just wondered if you could give me a hand. I am staying at a friend's house and would like to be able to connect my laptop to the internet. She does not have wireless, but told me all I had to do was plug her ethernet cable into my computer and it would work. She also said to disable my Wifi connection, which I did. She has a Virgin cable connection.
Her modem is on, with Power on green, Cable on green, and PC on green (flashing). The connection works very well on her own computer but when I disconnect her ethernet cable and plug it onto my own laptop nothing happens.
Do you have any idea how I can get her Virgin connection to work on my laptop? Thanks for any suggestion! 

[#2]

Does the ethernet port actually work on your laptop.
Assuming it does - when you plug the cable in do you see the little network connection icon on the bottom right hand toolbar and does it find the router or is there a cross over it (I think that is what it shows as I am presently on Vista and my memory isn't  what it used to be  )

[#3]

No there is nothing, not even a little red cross... 

[#4]

Ok, I have now enabled my network adaptors and I have a little icon with a red cross and: "Local Area Connection. A network cable is unplugged." When I plug the cable the red cross disappears and I get a connection of about 100Mbs. But when I open Firefox I get: "Problem loading page". Thunderbird doesn't work either. What am I missing?

[#5]

Your laptop needs a network IP address. This can be assigned by DHCP or you can assign it one manually.
Secondly you need to setup the default gateway - that is where your computer sends internet data requests - IE the router.
Once done you'll be online.

[#6]

If, as I think, you are trying to connect your laptop directly to the virgin cable modem, you MUST switch the modem off first.  I advise you wait half a minute just to let any capacitors discharge then turn the modem on again and you will be connected to the internet.  Your friend will have to do the same thing when she wants to re-connect her own computer,  There was no need to disable your wireless connection but you did have to enable your wired network adaptor as Oldjim advised.

[#7]

Thank you SO much for your tips! Problem solved! 

[#8]

Quote

youMUST switch the modem off first

The same applies if you attach a router to a cable modem (one with an ethernet input).  You need to power down the cable modem and then switch things back on in the sequence Modem>Router>PC.
If you attach a router you won't need to power down the modem to attach another PC to the router.