She's probably just needed a driver for the new modem all along. Usually XP installs one automatically, but if it doesn't have one, she'll have to do it herself. The new modem probably came with a floppy or CD with the driver. The computer is wanting to go online to download the driver, but obviously it can't since the modem isn't completely installed. This is nothing terrible, happens all the time. Basically, when you physically install new hardware, you also have to make sure the OS recognizes it and it has the right driver before it's usable. The Device Manager will always tell you if this is the case. If the driver is missing or is incorrect, like we said before, you'll see the red X or yellow ! next to that piece of hardware. If you DO see the red X o yellow !, right click on the modem, Uninstall it. Reboot the computer. Wait a few minutes (you should see a notification in the system tray that new hardware was found and is being automatically installed). After about 5 minutes, go back to the Device Manager and see if the modem is installed properly. Like I said before, XP SHOULD do this on it's own, but sometimes there are drivers it doesn't have.