on line but can't get to IE or OE email

I have XP Home on a HP 751X computer, IE 6 Opera 6 & OE 6 for email. I can get on line thru my ISP, dial up, but that is as far as I get. I have been on the phone @ least 12 times since late Sept. with my ISP & we have changed different settings each time & it doesn't seem to go any further than getting on line. I went out & purchased a new Modem thinking that may be the problem. the computer is 15 months old & when the Modem was activated it sounded to me to be quiteter, weak & slower than my older 1996 computer modem. the new Modem is an USB mini external one from Zoom #3090. It does the same thing as the Lucent Win modem that came with the computer. When I click on IE or Opera I get an error message in the" total internet connection manager error" dialog box stating" there was a general error in the total internet connection manager. please contact your ISP for further assistance ". the OE email dilog box states "The host mail.localnet.com could not be found. Please verify that you have entered the server name correctly. Account mail.localnet.com server mail.localnet com. Protocol pop 3. port 110. secure (ssl): no. socket error 11004 error number 0X800CCC0Q. All of these things seem to have been corrected. I even shut down my McAfee ver. 6 virus & firewall. I tried to network the two computers together about that time with the XP as host & 98SE as client, but that didn't work so I unplugged them. I didn't think about system restore until last Sat. HP doesn't give a copy of the XP home Operating system as they preload it in a hidden section of the disk so I can't reload it like I have done on my 98SE computer. This problem stops me from getting any updates. I would appreciate any help I can get. I am sending this question from my 98SE computer. Thanks

 

Is the McAfee firewall part of McAfee Privacy Service. If so, maybe this is relevant.
http://ts.mcafeehelp.com/displayDoc.asp?docID=216975&param1=245&PopularFAQ=YES

 

I think I would try removing McAfee completely and also the Total Internet Connection Manager app.

Then go to your event logs and clear them (it deletes the current entries) and then the following clean-up things
start~run~cmd and from the command line first
sfc /scannow and then
chdksk /r and say Yes to doing the chkdsk at next boot then reboot.

If you can then get online, go immediately to the internet and get a free AV program to use for the time being. AVG has a good free version as do some others.

If you can't, check your event logs for error messages. If you find any that look like they might relate to this problem, post the contents here. Easiest is to open an event, click on the icon below the up/down arrows (puts a text copy in your clipboard) and paste it here.

When we finally get your internet working, if you still want to network the two PCs, post in the networking section and we'll get you fixed up there as well.

 

Do you have XP's firewall enabled? I had a comp here that did the same kind of thing, shut off the XP firewall and rebooted, and it behaves fine now. Just a thought.

Johanna