How Do I Restore a lost Internect Connection?

I uninstalled AOL to go to another ISP (dial up also). When I did this I could not connect to the server the traditional way. I could connect through my IM when I had mail in that account. I went to cable and had could only connect through the messenger, I'm now using DSL and get no connection. I can't even get on the IM. It constantly says cannot locate proxy. Also, I'm getting some kind of W32 error and no active X. Can someone please help? Do I need to just throw the thing out or get a new hard drive. I'm running a Windows XP home edition.