I just got new interenet through my cable company and they put a wireless modem on, my laptop dell latitude D610 says it is connected but it won't connect.

Did you set up the connection or did the cable company do it for you? If they set it up secure your going to have to get the SSID from your box (wireless modem) and enter it into your laptop to gain a connection.

The laptop should see it but look to see if it shows up as secure or open connection.