Took work computer home and used wirelessly, now won't work!

My department has a shared laptop we rotate and take home on Saturdays. We have been told to "hard wire" in using an ethernet cable. I did not do this, instead just worked off my wifi and had no issues. When I brought it back to work today, its not working at all. We aren't able to plug it into our towers, pick up wifi, anything... IT says the IP address is all zeros and they might have to send it away to be fixed? Did I mess this all up? I appreciate your help, I am a computer newbie!