Lost tcp-ip in windows

Not sure I’m in the correct category, but here goes. I use Win XP and get my mail through Outlook. I have always kept AOL for my kids. I upgraded to AOL 8, and everything was working fine. But then I did a Windows update, and for some reason was having problems. So I did a restore. I realized, after the fact, that I had deleted the AOL 7.0 from my system, and after the restore, my AOL can send and receive my mail, but not connect to the internet. Between AOL, Dell, and Microsoft, no one can seem to resolve this issue without having my re-format. Do I really need to do all that?