Cannot navigate past home page

I recently repaired one of my old office (I think it's a Dell) desktop computers (the only one able to be salvaged from Hurricane Sandy). The computer is running XP Pro, SP3.
When I open a browser window (either Explorer or Chrome) the home page (in this case Google) opens without a problem. I'm able to enter a simple search parameter (for example, my name). A new tab opens with a set of choices but I cannot navigate beyond that, for any search parameters.
Icons at the lower right hand corner tell me that I'm connected to the network and also that I'm connected to the internet. There is back and forth activity being logged. I've pinged www.google.com successfully. FTP port is set at 21, HTTP=80, HTTPS=443. The OS is a recent (yesterday) re-installation.

 

you cannot use explorer (ie8) for general surfing, chrome does not support xp
download and install firefox 52.9.0 ESR , install and use that as your default browser. After it is installed you can install mypal also. not sure about your home page, set google as a bookmark and use a blank page as your home page and see if you can progress further on firefox.

https://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/releases/

offline installers for firefox

 

Thank you for your response. I'll try to download the firefox installer to a flash drive.
I'm not running IE8, it's IE7. When I had the computer up and running in my office, Chrome I believe, ran seamlessly. But then I'm prone to senior moments. I've never had to install Firefox, though. I'll give it a try and let you know what happens. Thanks again.

 

Elizabeth, who was I to doubt you? I went back to the directory sub-folders, figured out which one I needed and installed Firefox without a hitch. The browser seems to be working like a charm. Thank you. Be well and stay safe.

 

also while you are at it, update to ie8, even if you do not use it,