Of course you have a network, how do you thing you're connected to Comcast? You don't need more than one system to be on a network. but I'm fuzzy about what "Microsoft connection" you're talking about.
Do you mean the connection icon in the System Tray in the lower right corner of your desktop, on the Taskbar? If so, that icon only shows the state of your ethernet (or wireless or USB or firewire) connection. Whether it appears there or not is simply due to a checkbox on the connection properties. It's presense or absense is not important to anything. If you mean something else, you are going to have to be more specific.
This is what I mean about being more specific. It's not productive to just sit here and guess at what the OP meant. He (or she) should just go find out and post the details. If they meant MSN, why didn't they say that?
Then you're fine, that icon just shows the status of your Comcast connection. Actually, it's showing your connection to the cable modem, but in essence, that's your Comcast link. If you don't want it showing, just go into your connection properties and turn the icon off.
Do you know know if you have XP? If you do you can restore all systems easily. You DO have a network! Who do you pay for it with? Call them they will help you restore if needed.
