Connecting to wireless network: what's missing?

[aromes]

Hi,

Using my windows XP Pro laptop, I am able to

View availage wireless Networks that are made available to

people of my compound. So I select one of the available wireless network and try to connect to it by simply clicking on CONNECT. Then I get the message "Connected to xxx network. Signal strength = excellent"

But I guess that's not enough because I cannot browse web pages and anyway, I do not even get an IP address (even after an ipconfig /release followed by an ipconfig /renew).

Also: how come without providing a Network Key, I was able to still connect (and how come I was able to connect but not being able to go further)?

What is missing to be able to access the web despite the confirmation that I am connected? Do I need to absolutely run at the administrators of those hot spots (wireless networks) and ask them for some setups?

Thanks for helping

[tain]

Can you connect to any other wireless networks? Or is just this one that you can't connect with?

If you can connect to other networks then there may be some sort of authentication needed for this network. There are alternatives to manually providing a key. There are dizzying array of custom methods really.

If you can connect to other networks then you may need some extra info from the admins about how to connect to this network.