How is my work setting up the wireless auth?

[mcveigh]

I work in a hospital (actually 2) and recently one changed the public wifi.
It is an open hotspot and by simply setting up a new open network with the correct SSID. your device connects.
I usually use Linux on my personal laptop and my phone is android. I took a while to figure this out because tech support only knows windows.

Once I figured it out I booted into windows7 on my laptop and as soon as I'm on the desktop windows pops up a notice of an open network and prompts me to input the SSID. I do and am online.

the past week my phone cant connect though. I am using an app like wifi analyzer I see the open networks (with no name) that I would see before. but I can't connect by simply adding a new network with the correct name.

I'm curious how you could setup a a network like this. Just because I've never heard of such a setup.:hmm:

If anyone has an idea on why my phone won't work while my laptop will it would be appreciated. the tech support sucks there

 

[Enigma102083]

Almost sounds like SSID broadcast is just disabled. Create new wireless network, enter the correct SSID and you connect.

 

[mammador]

I have this issue at uni sometimes. Smartphone wifi NICs often are not as sensitive to waves as laptop NICs.

 

[mcveigh]

I thought the tools I was using would pick up networks that just weren't broadcasting their SSID.... I may try this at home and see if I can duplicate it.