Without a Route, ping has no idea how to get there.  There should always
be a default route, or at least a static route, unless of course DHCP is
being used.

 

I do have two network cards in the laptop.  I also have two NIC's in my desktop and it is working fine.
   

If there are two Network cards and you have drivers loaded for both, you
have to be careful that the ifconfig lines in x:\mptn\bin\setup.cmd are in
sync with the tcpip bindings in x:\ibmcom\protocol.ini.  Otherwise it is
possible that tcpip will not use the right card.  It is possible that on
the desktop you lucked out.