Geronimo- I had asked about the IP assignment to try to decypher where you were at in the connect process. As a matter of fact, you do get an IP assigned as soon as your computer accepts it. If you are in auto scan and you are on the right system (as mentioned earlier B only or G only, B or G, Infrastructure, etc, then the IP is assigned after just a few seconds in an open system. From that point, depending on the way their wifi lan is designed you may or may not have to "sign on" As for the discussion, it does seem peculiar that you know about all these others who are on it with no problem yet you don't give too much detail on the way this lan works, nor do you offer details on how you have your system configured.
I'm at a trade show in Las Vegas, If I turn on my wifi I can see over 50 wifi systems, nearly all are secure. But a few are public service requiring a sign in page with credit card etc. Then there are some that are wide open. I have my adapter set to auto configure, so the step by step process is simple- The wifi signal at the top of the list will make an attempt first, if encrypted, it will move to the next one and so forth until it finds a public one which is open but may be subscription. These, while open require login but before I join these I will receive an IP. IN a completely open and no join requirement, all I get is the IP assigned and then I can open IE and surf the web. When the wifi is encrypted, you have to exchange the keys before the router will issue you an IP. Thus the process for an encrypted wifi is slightly different than the steps in an open wifi.