re-install XP... too bare bones!

so I've recently re-installed windows xp on my dell e1705 and it worked! too bad there's nothing on it... I can't seem to connect to the internet at all, wireless or wired. So I forgot to install the drivers from the driver disk right? well that driver disk is like a maze of corn 3million square miles of foreign jarggon. I might as well be reading a Chinese proverb upside down in a tank of lighter fluid backwards in Japanese.

any quick pointers to a good tutorial website or anything for getting this machine back to the net so I can run Windows Update to fix it for good?

v/r Memento

 

The driver disk is not hard at all to use. There is a menu right?

On the cd, open AUTORCD.exe and let it install.
On the start menu there should be dell accesories -> dell resource cd; open that.
There should be a blue bar across the window that opens. Click the word 'drivers' and first install the chipset drivers.

Taken as an example; click intel mobile chipset, and on the next page, scroll down and click extract and follow that process which will launch the installer after it extracts.

Then, install the video drivers (makes things easier for you).

After that, install everything (that you haven't already installed, don't install something if you know you don't have that piece of hardware) starting at the top of the list.

Also, do restart each and every time an installer asks you to, or your system will get messed up.