This TV show was somewhat a ripoff of Power Rangers, in that the kids go into giant robots that fight, and those robots can merge together into a giant super-robot. It seemed like a competitor. Like Power Rangers, it was an ordinary cable show, but I don't remember which network.
The kids lived in real life and (I think) went to college, but all their robot fights happened virtually. I don't remember how they make the transition, but I think they get "sucked in" to a laptop.
The villain is a guy with a laptop. Possibly the laptop that the heroes get sucked into, when they fight in virtual reality. I think that, while the heroes were in virtual reality, the villain used his laptop to communicate with them (generally to deliver stereotypical cartoon villain trash talk).
This show commercialized heavily by selling toys that are very similar to Transformers toys.
It ran in the 90s. I believe it was popular for a very brief period of time, after which it basically plummeted into obscurity.