For some reason, I cannot use my DSL modem to connect my Win98 laptop to the internet. I've been trying for over a year now and inspite of the software downloads from my ISP, my modem and my laptop cannot get along. The funny thing is that I used to be able to connect the modem to the laptop and surf with it. It was not until reimaging the laptop did things get this way. I can't find any drivers for the modem to my laptop (they don't seem to exist). I am also hoping that upgrading to XP will be enough to get the devices to work together again. But these things worked together before and I can't seem to recreate the conditions to do that. Ideas?

To make things simpler, you should invest in a SOHO router with 4 LAN ports and connect it to your modem. This would provide you with a firewall and DHCP/NAT and allow for multiple units to connect to the internet, and speak to each other on the LAN. Once you had a router, you could plug both units in, set them both to get their TCP/IP settings automatically (DHCP) and both should work.

As above is a good solution. I'd use that. If you want to pay with it you can log on to the modem and put your logon info in it I believe. Then any system with tcp ip installed can use it. "Best Practices", Event viewer, host file, perfmon, antivirus, anti-spyware, Live CD's, backups, Make an autorun.inf folder on all usb drives.

My laptop's Tcp/ip settings are set to automatic detection, and it still won't get anything. What else am I missing? Buying a new router would be a waste for me, I just want to get the equipment that I have to work again.