I have an HP laptop running Windows XP Pro. When new I used it on holiday in Holland and connected to a free WiFi hotspot to check my email. At home I have a conventional WiFi network using a Wireless router/access point/ADSL modem (BT Voyager) which provides Internet access for two desktops and the laptop and also provides file/printer sharing.

Recently I hit a problem, while on holiday I attempted to use the hotel's free access point which other guests were using without difficulty. My laptop picked up the access point, went through the connection process apparently correctly but I could not communicate with the hotel's wireless router. I checked the URL and tried pinging it in a DOS window but no response. I tried every connection trick I could think of but had no luck. This was the second time I had encountered the problem, the previous time at a different hotel. Connection to my home network gave no problems.

Back home I decided on a total re-build of Windows and my applications. The laptop was two and a half years old and also had the problem that Windows took an age to close down. I hit a couple of problems on the rebuild but eventually had everything working the way I wanted. Shut down was now less than half a minute.

Two weeks ago I spent a weekend at the hotel where I had first hit the connection problem. This time I was browsing the Internet in no time at all. Back home again my network connection still worked fine.

I would love to know what caused this problem if anyone has any ideas or indeed hit the problem themselves.