Page 745 - Windows 10 May 2019 Update The Missing Manual: The Book That Should Have Been in the Box

It’s locked. If the hotspot’s icon doesn’t have an exclamation point

( ), then the hotspot is password-protected. That’s partly to
prevent hackers from “sniffing” the transmissions and intercepting
messages, and partly to keep random passersby like you off the

network. Anyway, you need the password.

The signal isn’t strong enough. Sometimes the Wi-Fi signal is

strong enough to make the hotspot’s name show up, but not strong
enough for an actual connection.

You’re not on the list. Sometimes, for security, hotspots are rigged
to permit only specific computers to join, and yours isn’t one of
them.

You haven’t signed in yet. Commercial hotspots (the ones you
have to pay for) don’t connect you to the internet until you’ve

supplied your payment details on a special web page that appears
automatically when you open your browser.

The router’s on, but the internet’s not connected. Sometimes

wireless routers are broadcasting, but their internet connection is
down. It’d be like a cordless phone that has a good connection
back to the base station in the kitchen—but the phone cord isn’t

plugged into the base station.

Memorized Hotspots

If you turned on “Connect automatically,” then whenever your laptop enters

this hotspot, it will connect to the network automatically. You don’t have to
do any tapping at all. Behind the scenes, Windows is capable of piling up
quite a list of these hotspots, representing a bread-crumb trail of the

hotspots you’ve used at every hotel, airport, coffee shop, and buddy’s
house.

You’re welcome to peek at this list at any time—and to clean it out, purging

the hotspots you’ll never need again. To see it, proceed as shown in
Figure 12-5.