MBP 17" Full Bars/No Internet?

So I've got a 17"MBP that I bought in Aug09, and I've used the same Netgear router ever since, it even worked when I woke up, but now, all of a sudden, when I got back from the gym my airport signal was at FULL bars, but then when I open safari, it says "you're not connected to internet" and a little "!" appears over where the bars should be. When I use an ethernet connection it works fine, and when I even go and use my college campus wifi, it still works fine. Any ideas? This is ridiculous.
Thanks...
***I've heard in the past a lot of people have had this happen, but I'm ****** that Apple won't even talk to me without $50, since I'm 3 weeks out of warranty... some customer service. IDK this sounds like a plant to me.

Sometimes I have the very same situation. What cures it for me is unplug the power from the wireless router...wait 10-15 seconds...then plug it back in.

- Nick

That did nothing for me, and I reset everything, but strangely enough, what fixed it (at least for now) was adding an extra digit to the router's name. It was "Protein" now it is "Protein2." Strange... but I did have a problem with my xbox awhile back where my new verizon router was incompatible until I added a 6th digit.

drivebyrachko said:

That did nothing for me, and I reset everything, but strangely enough, what fixed it (at least for now) was adding an extra digit to the router's name. It was "Protein" now it is "Protein2." Strange...

Click to expand...

Believe me...unless there are two networks named "Protein" at your location...adding a "2" changing your networks name to "Protein2" wasn't the solution...something else must have happened.

You said that you "reset everything"...I'm sure this had much more to do with correcting the problem.

- Nick

Well I know what you say should be true, I'm just saying that nothing I did worked, UNTIL I changed the router name. Coincidence? Maybe...

This is a problem with the wireless encryption - the machine isn't getting an IP, most likely because it didn't handshake correctly when rejoining the network. In these rare cases, I've found that just turning off AirPort and back on usually does the trick.

Make sure your router is using WPA or WPA2 encryption (preferred). Also make sure that your router's firmware is up to date. If the problem persists, I highly recommend switching to a Linksys or D-Link router. Netgear is made by Nortel, who is well known for their craptastic telephony solutions, none of their forays into data networks have ever been particularly successful.