solved!!
ok, after i thought i had figured it out, it turns out i didnt, lol. when i got it to work, i tried it on my tower computer with usb wifi card, sharing that connection to my laptop. that worked, but i also had 2 other laptops that i was trying to get to work from my other laptop, ie, changing connectify from sharing on my tower to sharing on my laptop. here is what i discovered, maybe it will help someone else....
#1: on my wireless router, i found out that the wireless encryption type was set to "TPIP" instead of AES, as on connectify, so i updated my router to also use AES.
#2: setup: i had connectify running on 1 laptop, and was trying to get 2 other laptops to connect to it. they would connect, ie, see the network, but wouldnt allow internet connection. discovery?..... the pc name on all 3 laptops WAS THE SAME, so i changed all of them to something different, ie Home-PC to Mini-PC, Dell-PC, etc. after i did that and rebooted all 3 laptops, i started connectify back up on my Mini-PC, and then tried to connect to it from the other 2 laptops, and it now WORKS!
Hope this helps some of you out there w/ this issue. this has taken about 5 hours of my time trying to figure out. luckily i didnt end up buying a "compatible" wifi usb adapter or anything else beforehand. another thing to check is to make sure your wireless card is compatible with connectify. there is a listing on their website. my Mini-PC uses an Atheros wifi card which is one of the ones that works. if your card isnt on their list, you might want to try searching Ebay for one of their recommended cards. I found a USB Dlink compatible card on there for $12 w/ free shipping. GOOD LUCK EVERYONE!