Network connectivity problems

I work @ Parking & Transportation for the University of Virginia, and am currently trying to rebuild an OS on one of our PC’s. Before we do that we need to get her PC back on our network so we can back up her files. Windows 2K indicates that the network connection is unplugged, but it is plugged into a working port. We even tried different cables that we knew worked. I checked all of our network settings and had several of my co-workers verify them. We even tried switching network cards, but that didn’t help. Do you have any idea what else might be the cause of our problem?