Wifi (Wierd issue)

I have an acer laptop that I am using for college, and when I am at home it works fine. Then when I get to the college (which has open networks), it says that it is connected, but I don't get internet access. Everything just times out. I know its not the college because people are connected all around. Any ideas would be helpful. thanks.

Helpful info:

Wifi: Broadcom 802.11g Network Adapter OS: Vista SP1

Weird. Perhaps you're missing certificates? Maybe you selected the wrong auth/encryption schemes.

Yeah, my bet would be issues with the security type you are attempting to use. People around campus here have issues with it all the time. Our campus uses PEAP, but I'm not sure how standard that is. If you just have WEP/WPA/none selected, that's probably wrong.

I've helped people here configure Vista, which is significantly more difficult than either Linux/Windows 7 for PEAP. Still found a guide using google though.

Your school probably also offers a tech service, if it comes to that ;)

edit: Didn't see that you said open networks. Nevermind :P I would make a linux boot disk/flash drive and see how that goes.

My wife got on her laptop and immediately connected. She is on win 7 though. I think I will try the live disk idea. I should have fedora 12 around here somewhere. Thanks