connected but not connected (public)

i have a dell inspiron e1505 (ms media center) notebook which says it is connected to the open public wireless network, but it apparently is not as the internet will not come up.

any ideas as to what might be going on?

thx in advance.

 

which open public wireless network? yours? or is it really public? and if so, are you sure you should be able to access the internet with it?

 

Possibly a firewall. What sort of security software do you have? Are you using Windows firewall or another one?

 

just windows firewall; the only thing i can think of is that the signal strength is low, but it still says it is connected :confused

 

can you hook it up wired to make sure the net is working?

 

yes, it works fine wired

 

i've found that if the signal is lower than around 50% or so, i can't get online wireless...it connects, but doesn't perform well...what strength are you getting?

 

probably at or a bit less than 50%; it doesn't allow me to get online at all, but yet it says im connected :confused

 

are you getting the correct IP address?

when it says you are not connected, what is the ipconfig results?

 

Have you asked the owner of the store/router? He would probably be able to go through the most obvious things, which may be a little more difficult to do over the internet.

Trying to decide if the problem lies with your computer or their router, can other computers connect wirelessly fine? If you don't know and can't find out, please say so.