My wireless connection is failing when acquiring network address

[Clydestyle]

I have fitted a thomson router to my desktop coputer using an ethernet cable and all is working fine. My Sony Vaio laptop recognises the wireless connection but fails to connect at the acquiring network address. I have been into the properties section of the network connection page and am only allowed 8 characters for the network key. But the Network key on the bottom of the modem is longer than 8 digits. Can anyone help?

 

[ngrego]

How old is the Vaio?