Laptop will not connect to the home network

[Synerjist]

I have a Lenovo Thinkpad R61i With Windows XP Pro SP3 and it will not connect to my home network wirelessly or via ethernet. When I run the new connection wizard it says my Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network Connection is disconnected. It recognizes the ethernet connection, but when the wizard finishes nothing has changed, my network connections window is still empty. I have been able to connect wirelessly and via ethernet before, but I had to use Lenovo's Access Connections. However, I downloaded WinPcap and list checker for hosting Warcraft 3 games. After trying to set those up I couldn't even use Lenovo's Access Connections to connect to the network. Quite frankly I would rather just use the Windows XP networking stuff since it seems more straightforward (if it would actually work that is), but I have never been able to set it up. My brother has a Lenovo Thinkpad R61 and it has the same networking hardware as mine. His works and mine doesn't. The drivers for his Intel network adapter drivers are version 11.5.0.36 and mine are 11.5.0.32, but neither of them are the most recent so I'm not sure why that would be the problem (I have tried the most recent drivers but those don't work either). Also, he has .NET Framework 3.5 while mine is only 3.0. Would this make any difference (I can't test it yet but I will next)?

If you need any more info I would be happy to provide it.

Thanks

 

[B00kWyrm]

The update from .NET framework 3.0 to 3.5 is a security update, and should be applied.
This may (but, imho, probably will not) fix the connectivity issues...
Proset is at version 12 now, but I prefer using the Windows Zero Config to manage network connections.

Have you tried running Internet Explorer?
It has a Network diagnostic tool built in, and I have used it a couple of times to repair connections.
One of the most recent repair issues with my wireless concerned transposing digits in the WEP key.
Worth double checking.

Other issues... I am not a gamer, let alone Online gamer... so others will be more help with those concerns.