Help - Browsers Won't Work!

Hi,

Not sure if this is a Windows problem or due to the quirky Toshiba laptop network software, but here goes.

I'm running a Toshiba Satellite A105 with Windows XP.

My Web browsers kept shutting down, and I couldn't fix the problem. So I reinstalled the original operating system and files using the recovery CD.

Now I can connect to the Internet and send/receive mail using an old Compuserve program. But no browser works.

When I try to use a Web browser (Internet Explorer, Opera, or Foxfire), every page I try to visit on the Web gives me this error message:

"The page cannot be displayed. The page you are looing for is currently unavailable..."

I've been told this might be a name resolution problem or a bad modem (hardware) problem. So I disabled the internal modem and enabled a PC card modem. The new modem installed okay but I still have the same problem.

The odd thing is that when I access Device Manager, the Ports are not listed--and Windows notes that I might need network administrator permission to do so.

But since I'm the only one using it on dial-up, perhaps I did something to configure the laptop wrong, telling the machine to look for a network.

I've owned a bunch of Toshiba laptops over the years.They're good but have very quirky software bundled with them.

Any help is greatly appreciated! Without Web access the laptop is a big, heavy paperweight!

Thank you.

-Ed S.