Minor Progress

Some progress is progress. My war against technology is whipping my ass. I am not a technophobe, but I seem to think everything will be a lot easier than it turns out to be. After all my anxiety about the connector cable from the monitor to the computer-my purchase from Dell and their unwillingness to accept the return and my consequent purchase from Staples for even more cable connectedy-things -turns out the monitor will connect to the computer after all. Connected, no problem.
Now, I am apparently not connected to the internet. I'm pretty sure it's something fairly simple, like not inserting tab A into slot B, or making sure the power chord was connected to a power source (which happened in this most recent go-around). I know it's something simple, but I'm at a loss to figure out what it is . I am going to sleep on it and maybe wake up with the solution.
No snarky comments from you MAC users. I agree, it's a superior product, and when I have the money, I'm getting one of them efficient gadgets. But I'm not there yet.
I feel pretty good about the actual progress I have made. Or, at least , I percieve the actions of this evening as progress. Now I am tired. I worked all day, made dinner for Mum & me, did some laundry and worked on my computer problem. I haev earned my night of rest .