I have had a IBM Thinkpad T42 PC Notebook for about a year and a half. I have never had any trouble making a wireless connection until 2 days ago. I have called my internet company and they tried to help they said the problem is with my laptop and to contact IBM. My Wireless Network Connections 2, says "No wireless networks were found in range." When I open Network Connections it continues to say "Not Connected, Firewalled. Under that it says, 11a/b/g Wireless LAN Mini PCI Adapter II. There is also a big red X on there.

SOURCE: IBM ThinkPad T20 2647-44U (Adding Mini PCI WiFi Card)

no it will not work.

SOURCE: ibm thinkpad t42 switch for wireless network

The T42 has a bulit-in wireless network adapter and a LAN network card. T42s most likely have an Intel wireless card or less likely a Cisco wireless card.
Your wireless network adapter may have been disabled in the BIOS
and/or
The drivers for the wireless network controller has not been installed.

To check the network adapter go to the Control Panel, Click on System, click on Hardware Tab then Device Manager. Then scroll down and click on Network adapters. If you don't see your network controller or you see a yellow ? against Other devices for the Network controller. Then either it has been disabled and/or the driver was not installed.

To get the driver for the network controller you need to dowload it from the IBM/Lenovo WEB site their support/download page from a computer that has Internet access. Make sure you select your laptop model and the driver for your Windows version.
Install the driver and you then need to configure the wireless adapter to suit your wireless router settings before you can access the Internet.

SOURCE: new laptop can't find wireless network

try connect it with wire, than update. maybe problem is with adapter in thinkpad.

SOURCE: I keep losing my connection - IBM Thinkpad t42

Are you using IBM SW or Windows to manage the wireless? Occassionally, the IBM SW has issues with certain model routers and encyrption types.

You can also try unchecking the "Allow Computer to turn this device off to save power" in the adapter properties and

Adjusting the power on the wireless device to the max. By default IBM sets it in the middle to conserve power.

SOURCE: Wireless adapter not visible

Is it not physically connected or is there an on off slider switch thats turned off ?

Still does not explain why its not showing up in device manager.