NEED HELP with palm profile

[nasa1303]

my son just bought a palm pre off craigslist. i activated it online through sprint like i always do and i programmed it using the emergency call feature. so it says sprint on top and it has full bars. but everytime he tries to set up his palm profile it gives me an error saying you need to be connected to your wireless service providers network to sing in. what am i missing. it won't let me do anything with this phone untill i sign up for a palm profile. it is a used phone so do i need to wipe it? the wipe instructions i read said you had to go into menus but i can't get any thing to come up other than the palm profile page.