The laptop is a few years old and I have never had the wireless working, I bought it used a few years ago and I believe it was from a business or set up for a business network, I used the restore disk when I got it. I did a search before I asked my question and tried quite a few things. Here's what I have:
Toshiba Satellite P25-S477, Cable modem>Belkin.3236 Router, running XP

Getting limited or no connectivity, Network connection details,"unable to renew IP address"
Physical address 00-02-2D-B3-F9-17
IP Address 169.254.132.238
Subnet mask 255.255.0.0
Default gate "nothing"
DNS server "nothing"
WINS server "nothing"
it's wierd because when I checked it again it had no IP, subnet, or physical. I've tried all of the easy stuff restarts, went to the command center "ipconfig release,renew, ipconfig all" uninstall on wireless card, updated drivers, windows. It actually work at my friends house for 10 seconds. any suggestions I am pretty sure its a configuration problem, and I think it has something to do with the way it was set up as a business computer. Any suggestions?

If you have not already tried, just set a static IP address. That should possibly get it to work for a temp fix. The problem also may be a DHCP/DNS issue which I have had in the past. cant remember how I fixied it though. These days when I get a 169 IP the IP release and renew command has fixed the problem.

I would strip the adapter of all settings - - it's likely that there's a hard coded setting for a WINS server.

Remove everything and allow only Automatic IP and DNS settings.

That 169.x.x.x occurs because your system can not access the DHCP server.
If your system is attempting DHCP access for example 10.3.2.x(port 68)
but the router is on 192.168.1.1, you will fail with this symptom.

Thanks for the advice and I think i'm close to fixing the wireless problem. This is what I did so far, I googled how to change to static and I went the the command prompt, ipconfig/all and first input the settings into the (TCP/IP) i used the ip etc. from the ethernet adapter local area even though i'm trying to get the wireless to work, because thats what this guy said to do. That didn't work so I I input the settings from the ethernet adapter wireless but it only had the auto ip and subnet, no default gateway so i used the ones from the local area connection. Then I googled how to find my preferred and alternate DNS server and the closet I could find was Dallas" I'm in San Antonio" and input those. A bubble poped up and said wireless was connected but it can't load a web page, I'm sure this is the fix and I'm not inputting the correct numbers. So I guess that is my next question.

good - - you've learned something on networking.

this last issue is why it's better to use IP Address Reservation than attempting to a setup manually - - it's just too easy to foul out. Then there's that DNS question as to 'what is the right DNS for me?'
That's all resolved easily and correctly even it you change ISPs via IP Address Reservation in your router rather than the TCP/IP settings.

Using your Belkin.3236 Router and assuming you have not changed the default IP address for Belkins: the default IP address is 192.168.2.1
put this into your browser as if it were a URL and hit enter.

you get a prompt for the admin-id/password
Belkin:

Using a blank password you can login to Belkin router setup page ( leave the password space blank and hit enter ). The use of a blank password for login is not always a good idea, if you wish you can change the default password to a new password on the same page.

You need the MAC address of the Wired NIC or WiFi adapter you wish to be static.
(hint: get a connection to the router and then start->run->cmd and enter ipconfig /all)
The Physical address shown is the MAC address.

I can't seem to find your Belkin 3236 Router anywhere on the Internet - - are you sure you have the model number correct? Belkin model numbers (as I see them) start with Fxxxx

Yes i'm sorry it's actually Belkin surf N300, again sorry for incorrect info. i'm just an auto. mechanic and i'm still learning all of this stuff. I think Belkin 3236 is the name of the wireless network.