BT Android app says connected to hotspot but is it?

[faplap]

At a regular place I go to, the BT mobile Wi-Fi app (Android) says I am ‘connected to Wi-Fi’, displaying the green banner usually shown when connected to a hotspot. If I turn off Wi-Fi and refresh using the circular arrows, it says it’s connected to cellular. Putting Wi-Fi back on, it reverts back to ‘connected to Wi-Fi’. So far so good, except I know there are no BT hotspots in range and if I look in the phone connections, it says there is no Wi-Fi connected and gives a list of networks that the phone can see. I have heard of Hotspot 2 which is supposed to give seamless Wi-Fi roaming but 2 points. Firstly, I thought this was related to public access, bars, cafes and the like but I am in a residential area. Secondly, I would have thought I would be able to see which network I am connected to on the phone’s settings regardless . Does anyone know what is going on?

[gg30340]

BTWifi hotspots includes those being transmitted from any BT residential customers homes as well as cafes pubs shops etc.

The residential hotspots are not shown when you use the app to locate a hotspot, only the commercial hotspots are shown but if you scan for a wireless network, if there is a BTWifi hotspot within range it will show up.

BTBroadband customers are opted into BTWifi by default and as such their BT Homehub/Smarthub has BTWifi transmitted by default. 

See links

What is BT Wi-fi and how do I get it? | BT Help

How do I use BT Wi-fi, find hotspots and get online? | BT Help

Depending how you have set up the app, you may be connected to a BTWifi hotspot but if you have not set it to automatically log on with your username/password, although you are connected you will not be able to use the Internet.

[faplap]

I’m set up to log on automatically and connect without issue to hotspots. These usually come up as an unsecured network as BT Wi-Fi in the phone’s connections though.

[gg30340]

BTWifi is a public network and is therefore deemed as an unsecure network. 

See link

 How secure are BT Wi-fi hotspots? | BT Help

[faplap]

True, but how does this help my issue that the app says I’m connected but my phone’s wifi  setting doesn’t?

[gg30340]

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@faplap wrote:

True, but how does this help my issue that the app says I’m connected but my phone’s wifi  setting doesn’t?

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It doesn't nor was it intended to. I was replying to your post about why BTWifi comes up as insecure!

It may be that the location where the app is saying you are connected, the owner of the hub that is transmitting the BTWifi signal may have opted out of BTWifi and although they have done that the signal may still being transmitted from their hub but it will not allow any meaningful connection.

Have you tried connecting to a known BTWifi hotspot and if so does it work?

[faplap]

Sorry, I wasn’t commenting about the lack of security (WEP etc) just noting it for clarity. However, you raise an interesting point. When a hotspot is available, it is easily identifiable as it comes up in the network available list as BT-WiFi or (as was) BT WiFi with FON or BT WiFiX (for iOS) etc. Usually it connects as auto log on is enabled but sometimes it needs a nudge. However, as said earlier, the hotspot is easily identifiable as it contains BT somewhere in the name. In addition, you can see  you are connected to in the phone’s connection settings. However, in my case, there are no BT networks in the available networks list; Sky, Three;  Talktalk etc but no BT network available even if it had hotspot access turned off.  You said earlier that residential hotspots can’t be seen but, I can see my own at home (and auto connect) and there used to be one in the place under discussion that I connected to, but they seem to have changed provider as it is no longer there. This is what led me to wonder if it was something to do with hotspot 2 but I would have still expected it to show in the phone’s connection either in settings or the Wi-Fi connection indicator in the status bar. 

[gg30340]

What I said was "The residential hotspots are not shown when you use the app to locate a hotspot, only the commercial hotspots are shown but if you scan for a wireless network, if there is a BTWifi hotspot within range it will show up."

For clarity I was meaning that residential users BTWifi can be seen when you scan for wireless networks via the device's wireless settings but they don't show up on the BT list of hotspot locations within the app

As regards the "place under discussion" as I said "It may be that the location where the app is saying you are connected, the owner of the hub that is transmitting the BTWifi signal may have opted out of BTWifi and although they have done that the signal may still being transmitted from their hub but it will not allow any meaningful connection."

Other than that there is nothing further that I can suggest.