Ethernet connection problem

My son has just bought a new Toshiba notebook. It has two ethernet cards (a toshiba america rtl-8139 card and an askey lan controller) and is loaded with Suse 9.1. The ethernet wireless and wired cards configure properly but the internet connection is not made. At installation the internet test fails. The error log wasn't much help it just said the connection failed. I told him it is probably something simple but I don't know where to start looking. What should we do to get more information on why the connection is not being made. Or even better the solution itself. Thanks, Jerome