Mac ethernet connection issues

I just arrived in germany and I am trying to connect my 2010 macbook to the internet using an ethernet cable and have been having problems. I have tried connecting to two different ports (both of which work with other computers). When I connect the cable the computer recognizes the connection and shows the little green circle next to ethernet in my network preferences. It even displays an IP address.
The is no wifi in my dorm so eithernet is my only option for the moment. I have been reading forums for most of the day now and found nothing that helps or works.
I have tried the following
- restarting my computer both with and without ethernet plugged in
- Made sure I was using DHCP
- Made sure that ethernet was given priority over wifi and others
- Turned wifi completely off
- cleared my saved caches by entering 'dscacheutil' in terminal

nothing seems to have worked or made any differnece. Please Help! I need my computer and the internet for my job that starts monday!! Sending to an apple store isnt really an option becase I just moved to germany for the summer, and I cant afford to go that long without my computer.

Thanks for the help

The first thing I would check is the DNS servers. (Apple > System Preferences > Network > Ethernet > Advanced > DNS). Perhaps you have old servers there connected to your previous ISP, or otherwise need to update. I'd compare against what other computers on this network are using - or go to OpenDNS.com .

Good luck,

Z

There were no saved DNS servers (probably a result of the cache flush?) I added two to the list (208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220) from openDNS.com, and this did not help.

would the fact that I am in a different country have anything to do with this? I never had this problem in the States...

It's unlikely that location is a factor. I worked out of Russia for three years with my Mac and had no trouble.

Is the network restricted? Do you need to authenticate yourself somehow to gain access?