USB Modem B0rked my Network Settings?

Serbian

Hey,

[Relevant Info: My OS is Windows XP Professional]

I recently got IOL Broadband, and went to install the USB modem last night. I plugged the modem in, installed all the drivers and the modem seemed to work fine. I plugged in the phone cable and the ADSL light synch'd fine. I clicked to log on the IOL network, and that also worked fine

I'll just mention here that I was previously on Irish Broadband, but since I was unhappy with that I decided to switch to IOL. At this point I had unplugged the Ethernet cable running to the IBB radio, and had disabled the network card.

The problem arose when I tried to actually use the connection to browse the net etc. My IE settings were set to always dial default connection (which was set to IOL Broadband) and in the LAN settings, nothing was checked. However, when I tried to browse to any page it simply said that the page could not be displayed. I called a friend to check his settings, and everything seemed to be the same as mine, so I said 'Screw that!' and un-installed the modem software, and decided to go back to my Irish Broadband connection and get an Ethernet modem today.

So, I plugged the Ethernet cable back into the NIC and enabled it on the Network Connections page. I also rebooted the machine. Still it would not browse to any internet page, and at this point I got very pissed off. I had switched IE back to the way it was (Never dial a connection, and in LAN Settings: Automatically detect settings was checked). I hadn't changed anything in the network part, besides disabling, then re-enabling the network connection. I tried to ping www.boards.ie, and I couldn't. I then typed IPCONFIG and the settings for the NIC came up, and looked fine. I tried to ping my gateway, and I was able to do that.

At this point, I really wasn't sure what the hell was going on, so I decided to give the USB modem another chance, just in case a re-install might make a difference. I plugged the USB cable into the modem, then plugged the other end into my computer... The USB light didn't light up and Windoze didn't detect it.

I had my XP disk in my hand ready to format, but I thought I'd give it a go here as the Boards folk know their stuff better than I do .

From the looks of things, my computer seems to be looking for something other than my Ethernet card for internet settings. I can't think of what though! The only other thing on my computer that could upset network settings is a USB Bluetooth adapter, but that is unplugged and disabled at the moment. Anyone have ANY suggestions?!