I just can't seem to find a Linux that will work for my computer. I'm currently running windows xp, and I'm going to install my new Linux on an external hard drive. I have successfully installed Kubuntu on the hard drive (as it was the only disc I had, and I felt like trying it out). I can't use it because every time that I try and get on the internet with it, my computer crashes. So I want to try another one. Does anyone have any suggestions? Does anyone need any more information about my hardware? I've checked the site in the sticky and I'm going to try out Breezy Badger, but other than that I'm intimidated by the other distributions that may have worked on my laptop. Thank you

Heja! I usually try live-cd's on new machines. They are really good at detecting hardware. http://www.knoppix.net
Burn it 'as image' to a cd.
Note that this is not a solution but may be a good test to see whether you can get _any_ linux to run properly on this system.
To drill down to the solution /var/log/messages may help you on the distro that chrashes ...