Trying to establish a internet connection and more...

Hi I recently had my PC reinstalled and I'm not sure if it has to be done in a correct way or not but I cant seem to create an Internet connection. My modem is connected and works but it doesn't show up under network connections, and when I go to create a new network connection, I go through the wizard and it still wont work. So I'm curious to know how to fix that and also I'm getting a windows product activation? So if anyone can help I'd really appreciate it, I been searching like crazy but I'm just at a loss.

 

Well my buddy had a windows xp disc and set the bios to boot from the drive, didnt work the first time out, but the second try he got it to work.

 

xp previously and yes I do.