Ethernet not working in Dell XPS M1330

Howdy Mike-d. here,
Disclaimer: I mostly just report bugs, and send in too many crash reports.
But anyway. My suggestion is, go back to :

looked at the properties of "Network" (under System>Administration>Network). It
is in "Enable roaming mode" and has assigned the IP address of the localhost to be
127.0.0.1.

I have to mess with these setting on my computers every so often.

click on the type of connection you want to make, you said, basically ethernet(wired)
then click on the Properties dialog button to the right. The eth0 Properties window will open. with the mouse, left click on the [ ] Enable roaming mode (it probably has a check mark) remove the check mark from the box.
left click the [ok]
& close the Network Setting window.
if it scans a little light back and forth like Knight Rider, or a Battlestar Galatica Cyclon your probably on the right track, try a web browser like mozilla. if that does work yet, you might need to restart the computer.
Someone else may have a more direct method, but that is what uses works for me.
You can also chech that connection icon on the top right of the screen window and see if your getting the right connection info now.
good luck, if for some reason that doesn't work it is easy to reverse.

***I forgot to say to click on the configuration menu and make sure you choose automatic configuration(DHCP).
then left click [o.k.] button.

click on the type of connection you want to make, you said, basically ethernet(wired)
then click on the Properties dialog button to the right. The eth0 Properties window will open. with the mouse, left click on the [ ] Enable roaming mode (it probably has a check mark) remove the check mark from the box.
*** left click the [ok]
& close the Network Setting window.

if it scans a little light back and forth like Knight Rider, or a Battlestar Galatica Cyclon your probably on the right track, try a web browser like mozilla. if that does work yet, you might need to restart the computer.
you could also open up a terminal window and try a command like :
Applications->Accessories->Terminal
root@2HewittRand-desktop:~# sudo apt-get update
(root@2HewittRand-desktop:~) this part will differ for you depending on the name of your desktop and which user you are logged in as.
sudo means something like super user do this, probably equal to root, or admin access, you maybe prompted for a password.
apt-get update checks on-line for updates from the repositories.(computers holding packages with possible updates for your computer.)
if you get response like :
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com hardy-backports/main Sources
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com hardy-backports/multiverse Sources
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com hardy-backports/universe Sources
that means you connected to the outside world.

messages like this means:
either the computers on the other end are not responding or you are not reaching them.
Err http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com hardy-backports Release.gpg
  Could not connect to ca.archive.ubuntu.com:80 (129.97.134.71), connection timed out
Err http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com hardy-backports/main Translation-en_CA
  Unable to connect to ca.archive.ubuntu.com http:
Reading package lists... Done
W: Failed to fetch http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/hardy-backports/Release.gpg Could not connect to ca.archive.ubuntu.com:80 (129.97.134.71), connection timed out
W: Failed to fetch http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/hardy-backports/main/i18n/Translation-en_CA.bz2 Unable to connect to ca.archive.ubuntu.com http:
good luck, if that works try mozilla, if it works and mozilla doesn't, check mozilla settings in browser.