I'm guessing that this is zeroing in on the problem. The last time this computer worked on the internet was in Mexico, where it wouldn't work until our hosts at the B&B where we were staying had a friend of theirs come in and configure something on the computer so it would talk to their secure wireless network. Could he have turned off DHCP and assigned a static IP address? (Wow -- doesn't that sound like I have some faint idea of what I'm talking about? I don't!)
At a minimum he would have had to set the SSID the NETWORK SECURITY KEY and maybe the SECURITY TYPE. In the process he may have overwritten the ones for your home network. Though he should not have had to. The wireless utility on your laptop should be able to track the SSID and KEYS for many access points, switching between them as needed.
Since you have the relevant info written down, change it back.
He might have changed it from DHCP to a static IP but I consider that unlikely in that venue.
Do you live in a neighborhood containing a lot of active access points?
You might consider changing the default channel of the router to 1 or 11, typically they are set to 6 by default. You want to choose a channel that is least used by the other access points.
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