Can't connect wireless due to "self-assigned IP address"

I recently switched from PC to Macbook. I cannot log on to many wifi networks I could previously access with my ThinkPad. The computer successfully finds the network and has a strong signal but will not connect. Under network status, I get a message that says something like "Your Macbook is connected to the wireless network but AirPort has a self-assigned IP address and may not be able to connect to the network."
Ive tried various options but still no luck. This mostly happens in public Wi-Fi networks such as internet cafes, airports and Starbucks' T-Mobile networks. Thanks!

Can you connect to any wireless location? Or does not fail only in certain places? If you can't connect anywhere, it is your problem. If you can connect in some places but not others, it is their problem.
It wouldn't surprise me if there is some new, cheap vendor of wireless access points that doesn't do the network settings correctly and only Windows machines will connect to it.
You were a ThinkPad owner, so you weren't a typical PC user anyway. Most of them use PCs only because they are cheap, cheap, cheap. Is it 3.29 cheaper than a Mac? Buy it! Those people are now making cheap wireless access turnkey solutions. I have seen people like that before. Just because there are hundreds of millions of pounds of equipment depending on the software, or people's lives, doesn't mean they know how to do networking. They may be so incompetent they don't know they are incompetent. Those types typcially would never, ever think to test their product on a Mac.

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