pages cannot be displayed….

I have been at this for about a week now….i have just received this computer from my father in law…..Dell; WIN98;…..and i have installed Verizon DSL about a week ago…i can go to the first page of a site, but no links or second pages come up after the first page….it comes up w/ an error that says “Page cannot be displyed”

I have tried everything and am at my wits end

I am about to throw it out the window, although it is kind of heavy….lol

Any suggestions would be so greatly appreciated!
Kimmie

ps. If i have to restore my computer to factory settings, how would i do this ?