NIC has IP, but has "no carrier"

[Noor Dawod]

Hello,

My computer is not connecting to the local network with the following
configuration:

dmesg.boot contains the following lines:
-----------------------------------------
vr0: <VIA VT3043 Rhine I 10/100BaseTX> port 0xec00-0xec7f mem
0xfeafbc00-0xfeafbc7f irq 11 at device 12.0 on pci2
vr0: Ethernet address: 00:40:05:a5:00:04
miibus0: <MII bus> on vr0
amphy0: <Am79C873 10/100 media interface> on miibus0
amphy0:  10baseT, 10baseT-FDX, 100baseTX, 100baseTX-FDX, auto

ifconfig -a reports the following after booting up:
-----------------------------------------
vr0: flags=8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
	inet 192.168.80.111 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 192.168.80.255
	ether 00:40:05:a5:00:04
	media: Ethernet autoselect (none)
	status: no carrier
lo0: flags=8049<UP,LOOPBACK,RUNNING,MULTICAST> mtu 16384
	inet 127.0.0.1 netmask 0xff000000

Routing tables as reported by netstat -r:
-----------------------------------------
Internet:
Destination        Gateway            Flags    Refs      Use  Netif
Expire
default            192.168.80.100     UGSc        0        0    vr0
localhost          localhost          UH          0       72    lo0
192.168.80         link#1             UC          1        0    vr0
192.168.80.100     link#1             UHLW        1        0    vr0

/etc/rc.conf contains the following lines, among others:
-----------------------------------------
hostname="blah.server.net"
tcp_extensions="NO"
log_in_vain="NO"
tcp_keepalive="NO"
network_interfaces="auto"
ifconfig_lo0="inet 127.0.0.1"
ifconfig_vr0="inet 192.168.80.222 netmask 255.255.255.0"
defaultrouter="192.168.80.100"
gateway_enable="NO"

I also tried adding " media auto" in the ifconfig_vr0 above, but it
didn't help. Same scenario.
There's no problem in the cables as I use this same port in a Windows
2000 workstation.

What am I missing?

TIA,

/Noor