Installation of ISP Software

I have a Dell Latitude laptop and have made several attempts to install MSN 9 Dial-up, AOL Dial-up, and Bellsouth Dial-up. My ISP is MSN, but after several tries of installing their software....it installed MSN Installer and stopped there; when I click on the Installer icon on the desktop, there is no response. I tried uninstalling the Installer using the ADD/REMOVE programs utility to start from scratch, but again there was no response and it remains installed. I then tried adding a Bellsouth account; it too gets to a certain point and stops. Same with AOL. I attempted a manual connection to MSN to download their software per MSN's Customer Service instructions; it dialed in but I first got a "timed-out" error message. Using another access number, I tried again and received the message saying my user name/password was invalid on the domain. Given that I'm having trouble installing software from three different ISPS, I can only conclude that the problem lies with a configuration of some kind on the system. Anyone have any ideas how to figure this one out?