maccbook pro cannot use wireless network

Go into 'System Preferences' (available from the Apple Menu), click on the 'Networks' button and it will list each of your connections along with a coloured circle beside each of them - first of all check that your airport connection is green. Next double click on the airport connection from here and check what your IP address settings are (check that match to how you did windows - static/dynamic IP address, default gateway etc). If this is all fine then click on the 'Proxies' tab and make sure you do/dont have proxies ticked (depending on whether you are using a proxy server). Could you also open up safari, try loading a webpage and tell us what the error message is?

Thank you for the detailed explantion. I went through them time and time again and the safari when launched continues to tell me that the safari can't find  the server. It doesn't make sense because the network settings show that it is connected. The assistant says it is connected. The tcp/ip configs are identical to the windows notebooks. Nothing in the proxies are checked and it pulls an ip form dhcp which is the server it continues to say it cannot find.
How do you get to the command prompt

Thanks

The command prompt is the Terminal ('Applications' > 'Utilities' > 'Terminal'). Once you get into the terminal, could you try pinging 'localhost', then the router (normally something like 192.168.2.1, then a standard domain (like google.com) and tell us which ones fail.

Is the DHCP server in the router or on another machine, and if its on another machine, what OS is that machine running?

the dhcp is on a windows server 2003.

What were the results of the ping tests?

where is the applications?

finally found the terminal and I pinged the server as well as the gateway. Both failed. Is there a firewall or something that I need to disable on this macbook? Totally lost.

The firewall one the mac book wouldnt prevent all network traffic (unless you have done somethign really strange to it, or have installed a different firewall). The problem is more likely to lie with your windows server (does it normally ask for a username and password the first time a computer tries to connect through it?)

Yes we use a Nortel wlan system. Normally once a laptop receives an ip and launches a browser it will redirect them to the security log in page and then it will direct the person to the page that they are looking for.  All windows laptops work like a champ but every once in a blue moon I run into a macbook and it does this. any other ideas

I also see the ip being leased out in the dhcp as well as the mac.

can you ping the macbook from the server?

No I cannot. I just read that there is an update available for macbooks using airport. I guess this is a known issue. You wouldn't happen to know what that update is, would you?

This isn't necessarily a known issue - but applying all updates available in software updates is normally the best thing to do before fiddling with settings

yeah this is for a user, and like I said I have no experiences with macs. I assumed it was ready to go. so any ideas what update?

just launch software update (from the apple menu) when connected to the internet and it will tell you what is available, install any available updates (unless you have a reason to believe they will clash with something else installed)

I haven't used Safari in a while (prefer Firefox), but perhaps Safari has a pop-up blocker that is preventing redirection to the log-in page. Try poking around in the Safari prefs, or try a different browser.

See for instance: http://kb.wisc.edu/helpdesk/page.php?id=3279

you can untick the pop-up blocker in the safari menu (or in the safari prefs)

I went into prefs and it didn' t work. Do you think it has to do with the browser?

Strung will do. I'll let you know how it goes.

Just out of interest, if you plug an Ethernet cable in does it work?

yes it does.