No, they don't need to be the same. Terry had 98 on his desktop and I have XP on my laptop. To make sure the DSL is working, you might want to just plug all of that in first and make sure you can get online. If it asks you, you want to "automatically detect settings." You will also have to go into you internet properties - right click on the big E on your desktop and click properties. Go to the "connections" tab and check the circle that says "never dial a connection."

Then I don't know what sort of software the DSL people left, but you should be able to just double click on the big E and it should connect you.

I'll be on for a little bit yet, so let me know what step you're at and I'll try and walk you through it.