Internet connection with Win XP?

I am trying to connect an HP laptop running Windows XP to a Netgear router. I am able to connect to the router but I have no internet connectivity. I have tried running the connection secured and unsecured, have tried connecting to my neighbor's unsecured network, have tried rebooting the laptop all to no avail. I also tried to "repair" the connection and it keeps saying something about not being able to reset the ARIP or something like that (normally I would be far more informative but it is very late at night and I'm quite tired). Anyway, is there something very simple that I might be missing here? I have never had a problem connecting any of my Vista machines up to the router...