Wep Password Corrupted

[gibmason3]

I have a desktop and a laptop. The desktop is hard wired to verizon cable through the verizon router. I have been unable to connect to the internet using the laptop. However, I have been able to make this connection until just yesterday. In system preferences under network, it says airport is connected to the network (that we established). It also says Airport has a self-assigned IP address and may not be able to connect to the Internet. Under the internet Icon on the toolbar, Status says Connected to the network. Also, the signal level shows full (all bars). The problem seems to be the WEP Password. The password has been corrupted. Each time I check the password, it has been corrupted. It is the same corruption every time. The password has three problems. 1st- a $ appears at the beginning of the password. 2nd- the second character is a capital letter that moves to lower case. 3rd the last number in the password changes...specifically down from 4 to 3. How do I get reconnected to the internet?