I disagree, I have tried 9.04 and had the very same type of failures.
Reverted to 8.10 Ubuntu and worked every time. My experience with
9.04 with networking on wire connection was very intermittant.
I could have spent a lot of time trouble shooting I suppose but again it
takes time and I just chose to revert back. I am now looking at installing
9.10, but may just reload XP and make a dual boot system with what ever
I choose for my next Linux adventure.