Whats the exact problem with your internet? Can you dial in and it doesnt work? Can you connect to AOL?

You may have a winmodem, which is basically a modem that only works with the windows platform. You might have to get a new modem to accomodate for you new found linux ways.

Oh and welcome to linux. Mandrakes a good place to start, especially to get to know the file system. Try and use the command line as much as possible, so if you ever experiement with different distro's you can get around if they are just with bash.