Help,Internet Problems

Can someone help me please? I have two computers here at home. A dell connected to the internet here in my kitchen and a compaq in my room that is not connected to the internet. Recently I put a new sound card in the compaq but nedded to get online to obtain a driver so i draged it to my kitchen and tried hooking it up to the dells connection but it wouldnt let me connect! If this makes a difference the dell has vista and the compaqq has xp pro. The compaq has not had internet for a long time and used to have dialup. anybody have any ideas on how I could connect the compaq to the internet?