Trouble connecting

If I go to places that I have previously used their wireless networks my
laptop will connect and I can surf the internet, but if I look at the list of
available networks it will not show the network name. If I try to connect to
a new network the connection will say peer to peer and indicate that it is
connected but I cannot surf the net and the network list will also show no
networks available. I have refresh and repair connections and it still doen't
work. Thanks in advance.