I'm rebuilding my desktop computer after a catastrophic hard drive
crash. Before the crash, I had my desktop HP Dimension 4600 setup
plugged into a hub that fed into my DSL modem. All was wall, my desktop
and my laptop both talked to the internet just fine, and I had shared
my desktop's Canon i850 printer so the laptop could use it.

Now, after reinstalling XP Home Edition, there has to be some step I'm
missing. I have the hardware all plugged in where it should be, but
when I run the Network Setup Wizard, he tells me "The Wizard cannot
find your network hardware." So first thing I do is open a command
prompt and do IPCONFIG, and it comes back with absolutely nothing. It's
like this computer doesn't realize that it is (or was, before the
hard-drive crash) network-capable, and/or it doesn't realize it's
plugged into a hub which communicates with the internet. All of that is
still working,  because I'm able to connect to the internet through my
laptop.

When I look in Device Manager, under Other Devices (all items under
'Other Devices' show a yellow question-mark, by the way; is this
normal), I see 'Ethernet Controller'. When I open it, I see the
following info:

Device Type: other devices
Manufacturer: unknown
location: PCI bus 2, device 8, function 0

Device Status:
the drivers for this device are not installed (Code 28)
To reinstall, press Reinstall Driver.

I do that and he says to either search the internet for a driver (fat
chance, considering I can't GET to the internet) or install from a list
or location. I select that and point him to D: and pop in the Dell  CD
with 'device drivers' on it. I tell him to go look, and he is unable to
find the DD. So I tell him to pick from list (don't search, I will
install the driver) , scroll down to Network Adapters, select Next, and
I get several: Acer, COmpaq, Fujitsu Siemens, HP, IBM, Intel, NEC. And
here is where I stick, since I have no idea what brand of card is in
there!

Did I miss some basic step when I installed XP? I did an install from
scratch including a format, accepting the defaults along the way.