IE6

I have a very strange issue that stymies me. Please move this post as needed. Please understand that I am not a techno geek. Issue--- I started to load my browsers and other programs on an older DELL. I use 4 browsers, IE6, FIREFOX,FLOCK, and OPERA. The issue is that somehow I accidently removed IE6 from the OS. I do not know how. When I learned that 6 is not available for XP, I installed IE8, then removed it so it would revert to 6, which it did. Now I have 6 but it is OFF LINE, while my other 3 browsers are ON LINE. The error message insists that I am OFF LINE. I UNCHECKED the off line choice under the FILE tab, I tried a number of dialog boxes but nothing works. One box even uses the statement "connection is active since this time", with a running clock. A total conflict. How is this possible? How do I get 6 to work? Again there IS an active connection for the other 3 browsers. The solution must be a simple one. Solutions please. edited by ddp Thank you.