Cannot get wireless connection to my laptop

You need to make sure you have the same settings on your wireless access point that you use on your laptop.

Make sure you spell your SSID (wireless network name) correctly. It is case sensitive.

Turn off security on your access point just to see if it works.
Configure your network card for Open access and turn off all other security settings.

Once you get it working turn on WEP encryption on your access point and create a wep key. Enter the same key on your Laptop.

Don't turn on stuff that you don't need or don't understand.

You just need to make it as simple as possible and then turn on adequate security.

OR

If the WEP stuff just gets too hard you can use MAC security.
That is where you say only known computers can access the wireless network. On your wireless access point configuration add the mac address of every devices network card that will connect. Sometimes these settings can be a little hard to find on the access point.

Hope this helps.

Start simple and then make it complex :)