wireless help?

I am trying to setup a friends laptop to connect to the internet but I do not know how (they are using xp). In the little picture in the toolbar it says it has detected a wireless connection, so I clicked on it and connected. the only problem though is that I cannot connect to the internet using internet explorer. I was wondering if anybody could make a suggestion for because I am really stumped over this incredibly small problem.

First make sure you have gotten an ip from the wifi. Go to the command prompt and type ipconfig. If you don't have an ip, try typing ipconfig /renew and see if it grabs one. Since you say it connected I'm assuming you probably do have an ip from the wifi AP. So try looking in your internet options from the tools menu. In there look under the connections tab, and make sure it is set to never dial a connection and click on LAN Settings near the bottom and check for it to automatically detect settings. If that doesn't work I don't know what to say. As for not getting an IP, it could be many things. WEP keeping you from accessing the AP, MAC address filtering, the AP using static assignment thereby not automatically sending you an IP. Hope you get it figured out. Peace.

When trying to connect to a network with Windows XP, your best bet is to use the network connection wizard provided with your XP.

If you are pulling a IP off the router, try assigning your ISP's DNS server instead of obtaining them automatically.