Putty SSH connection refused

Thank you for the tips! (newbie here)One log tells me: Possibly need to config TCP/IP for ORBit (is installed - default) or have 'stale NFS locks' which I think I don't have because I restart the machine all the time (WOL works, just not PuTTY).
Then it gives suggestions as it does not seem to 'get connection to session', 'did not get a reply'.
(This would suggest it finds PuTTY ringing the doorbel, but does not receive an answer after 'who is there'?)
Suggestions as given:
Remote application did not reply (could be but I suspect PuTTY is fine).
Message bus security policy blocked reply (doesn't ring a bell with me).
Reply-timeout expired (I expect this to be a setting in PuTTY but can't find it).
Network connection broken (but I can Ping the machine, see the cables OK)

I'll do a mdesg now.
Any suggestions very welcomed.

- Post added at 03:04 PM CDT - Previous post was at 02:52 PM CDT -

I see nothing 'weird' when I do a dmesg, networkcard is up and running.
FYI the machine is a X235.
Also, the first time we installed Fedora13 we had a ball. No problems and the networkconfiguration worked itself out.
After the reinstall we couldn't get on the internet and I learned here how to configure the networkcard settings (Gateway & DNSserver). I still wonder why it worked all so nice the first time.
Is it important to know we are on a LAN? Maybe I should have said that earlier.
But I am connected with the X235 via a switch. I hardly believe our 'Samba server' has something to do with it.
But since I am wet behind my ears . .