Catch 22

Hello, I hope someone can help me figure out how to resolve this problem. I have windows 98 on my system with plenty of memory as we recently upgraded our memory capacity and my programs should be running very fast, but are'nt. A friend of mine recommended the adaware program to debug any left over internet trash and when we run it, it locates 364 items that need to be removed. When I remove these items the computer runs very very fast until i click on ie or navigator. When i try to access either of these browsers it tells me the internet server is not available, although, i am connected to the internet via earthlink.net. In order to have access to a very very slow internet I have to use the go back feature on my gateway essential which takes the computer back to a safe time (a time before running the adaware). I did call earthlink about this and they can find no problems and recommended i use the system restoration cd that came with the computer to reload? the original software. The cd is cracked and unusable. Please help????