You want to go to a 28.8 modem ASAP, but only as soon as your Internet provider provides 28.8 dial-in service. AOL, for example, right now tops out at 14.4. Be sure you've got compression working on your modem so your 14.4 kb modem can ACT like its going 56 kb. If you can get ISDN service in your phone area, AND your provider supports ISDN access, do that and skip buying a modem. ISDN is much faster.
Internet is extremely useful for communicating with others.
Last night at 3 a.m. I was visiting Universal Pictures Apollo 13 home page and reading an interview with Ron Howard about the movie. 1.1N has all new and different bugs. You can FTP a copy directly from Netscape. Learning how to access WWW, and other aspects of the Internet, is going to be a big education for you. Don t feel like you need to know it all instantly.