Some confusion here?

When you installed Win98SE you installed Internet Explorer (IE). It is part of the Windows Operating System. I don't have a Win98 system still running to check, but my recollection is that the "default" installation was/is IE version 4.5, although Win98SE (Second Edition) may have had ver 5.0.

IE performs multiple internal functions in Windows, including management of Windows Explorer -- a separate program interface which allows you to see what stuff is on your drives. Windows Explorer is a "local machine browser" and Internet Explorer is an "internet browser." They should be considered, and talked about, as separate programs, but are actually two different "interfaces" for the same core program.

In order to use a web browser, you need to tell the system how and where to connect. This is a system setup step, not an installation. The usual place to get into the settings is in Control Panel|Network Connections. (Again, I can't check the exact name of the function since I don't have a Win98 setup available.) If you go into the setup via Control Panel, you should be able to enter the information for your Internet Service Provider (ISP) and details about your connection, if you want to create a new internet connection or make changes to an existing one.

Once you have one internet connection set up, you should not need to "install" IE. It's already installed. If you open IE (usually iexplore.exe) and tell it to use the existing network connection you shouldn't need to "create a new connection." The only reason for running a "setup" for IE would be if you want to use a different ISP with IE than the one you use for another browser, or if your ISP requires "special software" that needs to be separately "installed for IE."

The ie6setup that was run is offering to set you up to use MSN as your ISP. Depending on the Win98 version installed, there probably was a desktop icon for running the MSN choice, and also similar ones for Yahoo and AOL, possibly a couple of others.

The "wizard" for setting up your network connection and selecting MSN as your ISP requests a modem so that it can make a 'phone call to a free - probably "800" - number to get a local (hopefully) dialup phone number it can plug into the setup to connect you to MSN via dialup. Remember that when the Win98 installation disks were made, almost nobody had any other kind of connection. The few cases where people might have another kind of connection were handled by the always-informative "see your system administrator."

If you go in through Control Panel | Network Settings - or the equivalent for your version, you should be able to select a generic "New Connection Wizard," that will let you tell the setup that you know what settings you want, and avoid the "automatic MSN" request for a dialup modem. If a network connection exists, any browser you choose to open should be able to use the existing connection without additional setup; although as always, your mileage may vary. Some browsers may require you to make internal browser settings to "point to" the existing connection(?).

John