Laptop with windows 8 to ethernet shield

My wife destroyed my old laptop, and now I have a new one. I cannot get it to recognize the previously working ethernet shield on my mega. When i run serial monitor, it shows the ip address. But i can't get either google chrome or internet explorer to read the ethernet port reliably. Sometimes it shows up, but mostly it doesn't. I think the problem is the configuration of network setup on the laptop.

Can anyone tell me how to configure the laptop to allow the ethernet shield to hook up?

Can anyone tell me how to configure the laptop to allow the ethernet shield to hook up?

Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) might be a place to start.

Do i make things easier on myself if i plug the shield into the router?

Probably. That is what a router is for.