Not Connected... But I am

I have the not connected icon on my system tray, but I'm definitely
connected. I'm browsing webpages and posting this message. When I double
click the icon I see the WNC window and it shows 2 available connections,
the first which is my network and the second is a neighbors. I have full
signal strength on the first one but it says not connected and it has a
yellow star icon next to that.

Not really a big deal since I AM connected, but this is my moms laptop and I
don't want her to get confused.

Okay, I noticed in the network properties I could uncheck the box to display
the icon if there is limited network availability and that removed the icon,
but why is this happening in the first place? I'm literally about 10 feet
away from the basestation.