hello helpers,
i have a dell inspiron 9300 running win xp home. i have a linksys
wireless access point router at home and at work. each router is
secured with a WEP key. the laptop has been working fine on each
network for several months, but all of the sudden it will not pick up
either network as an available one to connect to. the laptop will pick
up on non-secure networks and will connect to them.

is there some setting or configuration that may have been changed on
my laptop that is preventing it from "seeing" the encrypted networks?

thanks for your help and time.

quite possibly. try deleting the network connection from your laptop
and re-establishing. if that doesnt work you will have to try to enter
the router (if possible) via console and reset everything and
reconstruct your network

thank you sleek. i will give it a try.