My laptop won't connect to the internet

I freely admit, first off, I know little to nothing about computers but have always managed to get things running the way they should. I have a laptop that has wireless capabilities. Previously it was my mom's laptop and she used it via a cable connection to the internet. One day she just could no longer connect. She brought it to the Geek Squad and they told her it worked fine and connected to their wireless network in the store. She brought it home and it still wouldn't connect. She gave it to me some time ago and I can't make it connect either. I have followed all the tutorials, and things SEEM to be set up properly, but it's not working. My computer will detect a wireless network, connect just fine, will tell me the connection status is: strong. But when I click on Internet Explorer, it has that lovely message saying I'm not connected to the internet...even though the balloon at the bottom says "connection strong."

What do I do? Any ideas would be appreciated. I don't want to pay hundreds of dollars to take it to a shop for diagnostics...but I will if you think its not something I can fix myself, being computer-skills-limited.

 

I'm sorta having the same kind of problem...but I can get connected, then after a bit the screen will freeze the the internet explorer window will open and tell me it cant find the page. Hope someone answers your question or mine!

 

@Jessi, when you connect to the network, is there a little icon that comes up next to the clock? Is it two computers, or twocomputers with a small globe?

the latter indicates internet connection