local connection only

Question

What are some tip or things that you would try if you were somewhere; hospital, hotel, etc., and were trying to connect to the internet via there wireless router but your connection says local only?

Answer 1

It can really mean anything, the main reasons are :

• It can be a security precaution - wrong key so router "allows" you to connect, but nothing works
• There simply is no internet and it is an ad-hoc network that is used just for sharing files or simple networking
• There is no DHCP server on the network - you have to set manually
• You have manually typed in an incorrect IP / Network settings
• You have internet security software (Firewall or similar) that is preventing you to connect
• You are connected, using a non standard IP structure (such as link-local) and you need to open up IE or Firefox without a No script type add-on so you can redirect to a log on / payment page.

Again, there are more, but I think that these are the main ones.