Pardon my ignorance, but from this post I cannot tell what a "source" is, nor can I guess what a "Verizon hookup" is. I cannot tell if you are intending to make a WIRED connection to a router, or a WIRELESS connection. Your post makes none of that clear, at least to me. If you are talking WIRED, then what is preventing you from taking an ethernet cable and plugging one end into your router and the other end into your laptop? If you are talking WIRELESS, then what is preventing you from connecting to your own network?

I am sorry, I am obviously not as computer saavy as you are. Pardon my ignorance and stupidity.

I have a router WIRED to my main desktop computer. My old laptop was WIRELESSLY hooked up to it.

I don't know how to WIRELESSLY connect my new laptop to my own router, I have never done it before. I need someone to walk me through the steps of finding my WIRELESS source.

A "source" is what the computer calls the choice of routers that show up on a list of routers near me (all through Verizon) that I can hookup to, but I do not want to do that, I want to use my own non-Verizon router which is not listed when I try to connect.

I hope this helps you, and again I apologize for being so stupid with this.

Whatever happened to the people on this forum who understood that not all of us are computer literate and that is the reason we come here: for answers, not to be belittled by those who are more knowledgeable?

What is the name of the router in the basement, the model name like Linksys, or Belkin, D-Link? That's the name that will show up in Network connections or "Source" unless the router was given a name when it was first installed under the SSID setting. There should be a place that says "Show all available connections" click on that if you see it may show router after you do that. It's funny you can hook up to the other Verizon routers that are listed as those should be secured and ask for a passcode. Anyway go look to see the name of your router in the basement perhaps we can start from there.

Put yourself & the laptop in the same room where the router is located. Open the Windows Control Panel and look for something labeled "NETWORK CONNECTIONS" or perhaps NETWORK SETUP WIZARD". You should find instructions showing how to connect to a wireless network. If your network appears in the list of sources, it probably shows a signal level stronger than any other source on the list. If your network is unsecured, it should allow you to connect. If it is secured, you will be prompted for the password.

If you are unable to see your network on the list, it's probably because your network's identification has been turned off in the router. Someone will need to log in to the router and turn it back on.

Tell us if you were able to connect.

My question is if you are no longer using Verizon as your provider, then who are you using, is it a cable company or some other phone co, is it
Dsl?
The more info you provide us with the closer we can come to a proper resolution. Is this running XP or Windows 7?
We do not mean to belittle at all every question is important to the person asking and many learn from reading the questions and answers, but we do need sufficient explanations and info to try to answer correctly.
Please do not think you are stupid, we all had to learn.

Do you know who originaly set up your router and wireless network, did they write down the info for you as to the passcode for your wireless network, the name given to your routers WiFi, etc. That kind of info is extremely important to keep handy, I tape it to my router bottom.