Sharing Unsecured Wireless Connection

I have a laptop (Dell Inspiron 600m) with built-in wireless. I am able to
access the internet easily from my home wireless connection, but whenever I
go out and try to connect to someone else's UNSECURED wireless network at a
good connection level I can't seem to access the web or any other type of
connection (ie. IM or PCanywhere). I show that I'm connected at a good
signal but can't seem to do anything with it. Is there something I need to
correct on my end?

there is a lot more than seeing the 'unsecured' flag on a network to be able
to use it to get to the internet. first you have to know that the network
has internet connectivity. not all networks connect to the internet,
believe it or not. then you have to know that the internet connection is
active, some connections require dialing or logging in to a server, or
physically turning on the modem or router that connects out. then you have
to know that the network isn't secured by something like mac address
filtering. then you have to get an ip address that works on the network,
get the right net mask, and know the proper gateway and dns server
addresses, or hope that the network has a dhcp server that will respond to
you to give you that info without requiring some other type of
authentication. now, if all that is working you might just be able to use
the network to get out to the internet

"Elka" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:9EC2D079-5E2C-4E9C-A248-(E-Mail Removed)...
>I have a laptop (Dell Inspiron 600m) with built-in wireless. I am able to
> access the internet easily from my home wireless connection, but whenever
> I
> go out and try to connect to someone else's UNSECURED wireless network at
> a
> good connection level I can't seem to access the web or any other type of
> connection (ie. IM or PCanywhere). I show that I'm connected at a good
> signal but can't seem to do anything with it. Is there something I need
> to
> correct on my end?