When the laptop is on, and you insert the card into the card bus slot, does the power light come on? There should at least be some indication (a light) that the card is receiving power. If you can verify that the card is receiving power then your next step would be to make sure the driver is installed properly. To verify this, right-click on "my computer", click properties, click on the "device manager tab, and look where it says PCMCIA.. Do you see your card bus there in the list with a properly installed driver?
Once that is done, then you need to verify that tcp/ip and "client for microsoft networks" is installed. To verify this, go to control panel and click on "network". On the configuration tab, do you see tcp/ip and Client For Microsoft Networks in the list? If not, you need to get those installed... What do you see in the list?