virginmedia & btopenzone question

Lexxx

I am with virginmedia, I have been for a few years,
I have wireless connection.

I just turn on my laptop and it flashed up that i was connected to btopenzone?

i promptly shut down laptop, disconnected router for a few mins then put it all back up again? I am now connected back with virginmedia

not sure why that would happen? should i be wary? scared?
I dont really know much about this stuff

i have just checked on laptop system management thingy:p
and i have buttons where i can connect to other wireless networks?
that include btopenzone.

i was with BT many moons ago and i did use their internet, but it was through the phone line.

I am confused?

penrhyn

Virgin cable, or Virgin National?

Lexxx

I am with virgin cable.

who are virgin national?

penrhyn

Virgin national is their ADSL service.

All I can think of then is that a neighbour has BT broadband and your laptop logged on to it.

espresso

Lexxx wrote: »

I am confused?

What wireless encryption have you set up on your router?

If you are running an unencrypted wireless network, others will be able to connect to your network just like you have connected to the btopenzone wireless network.

You should have configured your PC to connect only to your own encrypted wireless network.

tommy8721

BT Open Zone generally still requires a password to activate - it allows people to use the internet on a daily basis without a fixed contract/hardware - but it is not as secure as your virgin account as anyone can access it.

eamon

I get this as well. I think that when my laptop is powered up it searches alphabetically and not automatically by the strongest signal. I can see BTFON, BTOpenzone and a neighbours BTHomeHub. You could play about and rename your SSID so that it will appear first.

spannerzone

Many wireless management tools have a 'preferred' network option, so open the wireless tool, have a look at the options and if you see it, select your wifi network as preferred and the computer will always look for that network first.

BTOpenzone/BT Fon usually appear when a neighbour has BT internet and a home hub that not only provides them with wifi but also has a signal for BTOpenzone/BT Fon - this is how BT have over a million wifi hotspots in the UK, they piggyback onto BT home and BT business user's hubs (essentially one hub can appear and act as 3 wifi access points)

Logging onto a BTopenzone is fine, you'd not get anywhere unless you were a paying BT subscriber and typed in your login then youd' get the internet access via their service.

It sounds like the OP's wireless connected to a BTopenzone but if they'd try to actually get internet access I suspect they'd get the 'welcome to BTOpenzone' page where you have to log in to continue... but they disconnnected before seeing this probably.

Lexxx

espresso wrote: »

What wireless encryption have you set up on your router?

If you are running an unencrypted wireless network, others will be able to connect to your network just like you have connected to the btopenzone wireless network.

You should have configured your PC to connect only to your own encrypted wireless network.

I have had wireless connection for about 3 years,
I set it up based on the advice i read on this site, so I think the answer to that quetion is yes..but all this stuff confuses me & does not stick in my mind:embarasse

How could I check and confirm this is the case on my laptop?

spannerzone wrote: »

Many wireless management tools have a 'preferred' network option, so open the wireless tool, have a look at the options and if you see it, select your wifi network as preferred and the computer will always look for that network first.

BTOpenzone/BT Fon usually appear when a neighbour has BT internet and a home hub that not only provides them with wifi but also has a signal for BTOpenzone/BT Fon - this is how BT have over a million wifi hotspots in the UK, they piggyback onto BT home and BT business user's hubs (essentially one hub can appear and act as 3 wifi access points)

Logging onto a BTopenzone is fine, you'd not get anywhere unless you were a paying BT subscriber and typed in your login then youd' get the internet access via their service.

It sounds like the OP's wireless connected to a BTopenzone but if they'd try to actually get internet access I suspect they'd get the 'welcome to BTOpenzone' page where you have to log in to continue... but they disconnnected before seeing this probably.

I have got it set to virgin as prefered network, I did manage to get onto my home page, no btopenzone homepage came up, but I shut everything down after that.