The Spam Thread!

[cpd2009]

I want to ask about my wifi router. Usually I disable the router security, but today I decided to re-enable the password again. My phone and my brother's phone reconnected to the router automatically.

Is that because both phones had once connected and saved the secured wi-fi in the past? I never change the password since the last time I enabled the security. If let's say a stranger's phone was connected to the unsecured wi-fi (and saved it), will his phone do the same as my phone or he'll be just disconnected and unable to connect without password?

In case anyone wonders, I went back and forth with enabling security because my laptop somehow cannot pick up the internet from the wi-fi if security is enabled.

In Android, I believe that it won't automatically connect to unsecured Wifi routers due to security reasons. It's actually a very bad idea to disable router security, and it's good that you turned it back on. If the router security is disabled, you can be at the mercy of piggybackers, people who either live nearby or drive by in their vehicles and browse the internet with your own hotspot. Piggybacking is not illegal in itself, but if one of these piggybackers were to do something illegal on the internet, the activity could be traced back to your router and you could face legal action even though you never performed the activity yourself.

Since your Wifi router is now secured, your phones consider the Wifi router a "trusted" hotspot, and thus, when the info is saved to the phone, it will automatically connect to your particular router each time it is in range. Windows and Mac OSX have a similar setup.

As for your laptop, we need some information to help diagnose the problem. We need the laptop model number, the Wifi model number (usually found with Device Manager, or a program like "Speccy"), and the Windows version. We also need to know how old it is. Depending on what type of security your router uses, it's possible your laptop might not support it. There are a few types of wifi security, mostly limited to WEP and WPA or WPA2.