TCP/IP is TCP/IP regardless right?
Right... for the most part. There are little differences between the OS's implementation of the protocol... but nothing that should affect logging into an ISP. TCP/IP is needed for communiation after you connect... not during authentication of your connection. TCP/IP should start after you've been authenticated and assigned an IP and DNS settings.

Its just a PPP connection. Now AOHell is slightly differernt... IIRC. But free accounts from KMart (if they still exist) would just use a PPP connection.

http://www.lysator.liu.se/~forsberg/...onnection.html