Also, there should be a place in your laptop where at least a few WEP keys can be stored, that correspond to wireless LANs you have already used. When the laptop detects a wireless LAN, it should go through all the WEP keys it knows, and see if it can find one that will work with that LAN.

Your laptop should remember LANs it has been on before, and switch over to them automatically, or pop up a prompt that says "Hi, I know where I am, shall I talk to this LAN?" and let you just say "Yes" rather than having to tediously re-enter the same WEP keys you entered last week.