Bt Wifi Hotspot

[New Judge]

Our BT Broadband is kaput and won't be fixed for another ten days. Mrs NJ and I have been connecting to the Internet and e-Mail via BT WiFi Hotspot. All went well for us both - until today.
#Mine is still fine (you have to log in if unused for about an hour) but Mrs NJ's has hit the buffers. Her machine will not connect. When selecting a network to connect to, it will not do so. It displays "No Internet, open". When running diagnostics it returns " Windows can't communicate with the device or resource (primary DNS server)."

Any idea, please?

[FatticusInch]

Bit basic I know but has she switched her device off and on again, then had another go?

[New Judge]

Yes, tried all that, thanks Fatticus. We've both had to do that once or twice and it usually did the trick, but not this time.

[FatticusInch]

Buenchico might be your best bet, it’s his field of expertise I believe?
He’s usually a night owl so may pick this up.

[New Judge]

Yes, thanks. I'm off to Uncle Ned now so I'll check it out tomorrow. Thanks for your help.

[Buenchico]

Try 'forgetting' the connection and then reconnecting to it.

These instructions are for Windows 10 but it should be much the same for other versions of Windows:

Right-click the Wi-Fi connection icon at the bottom right of the screen.

Select 'Open Network and Internet Settings'.

Click 'WiFi' in the left-hand panel.

Click 'Manage known networks'.

Click on 'BTWi-fi' (or however else the relevant network is shown).

Select 'Forget'.

Close the window.

[I like to restart a computer at this stage but it's not actually part of the 'official' process. It's up to you as to whether you bother with it or not].

Then try seeking, and connecting to, BT Wi-Fi again.

[ToraToraTora]

Just get CityFibre judge, that's what I'm going to do at the first sign of any agro with what I've got.

[New Judge]

Thanks for the detailed reply, Chris.

Thankfully, when Mrs NJ turned her machine back on this morning, lo and behold she was able to log in OK. These mysterious things aways intrigue me. The machine had not been touched since early afternoon. Went out and returned about 9pm to face the problem.

I did notice the "forget" option when I was fannying about last night, though I didn't try it. I'll keep your instructions handy for the next time it falls over!

Many thanks again.

[Giggsie]

When my bt broadband was off bt supplied me with a mobile bt hub worked off ee. Worked perfect as long as can get good mobile signal where you live. You then get to keep it so if your broadband down bt switches it on again for you.

[New Judge]

Thanks Giggsie.

That wasn't offered to me but perhaps that's because I said I knew I could probably get broadband via a BT Hotspot (I'd done it before). I should have kept quiet!

[237SJ]

If you phone them they should be able to give you unlimited 4G on your mobile (assuming your mobile is with BT) so that you can use that device as a tethering hotspot.

[New Judge]

No BT mobile, I'm afraid 237, but thanks for the suggestion.

The BT Hotspot works perfectly well as a stopgap measure. It's a bind having to log in repeatedly (I think it drops out after 30 mins if no activity) but it's no big deal. But the problem Mrs NJ faced last night seemed insurmountable. Very strangely it had rectified itself this morning. My laptop (working in the same room) was perfectly OK.