Wireless blocked on only one Wifi spot

Hi

so I bought my laptop two months ago (a Vaio SVE1112M1EW) and was able to connect to Wifi in my house easily. But then when I moved to other places, I wasn't able to connect to any Wifi spot!
When I come back home I can connect again. So I think the Wifi should be working but the settings are not right.

Any suggestions?

Thanks
Maud

You may be trying to connect elsewhere to public networks as though you are on a private network--which implies the network is secured. Public networks are not secured. Whatever, if trying to connect to a public network, then be sure you are setup as a public network in Network and Sharing center. Be sure network discovery is off and file and printer sharing is off.

In windows 7, it would automatically detect the difference of a private/public network and give you the option to choose how to connect. So I take it, it's not this way in windows 8?

Not necessarily. I was sort of thinking out loud about what the issue might be. I haven't taken a Win laptop to a public network in a very long time.

I checked that but it's already off.

Any other possibility znod?

When you can't connect, are your trying public networks only? If yes, you might want to go back to one and see how your computer is trying to connect--if at all.

Crap...in windows 8 on my desktop I can't seem to find the option to change/configure the network...change from private to public like I can on my windows 7 laptop.

In 7 you can click on home network and pop up comes up to allow you to change it, you have 3 choices...Home, Work and Public. There is nothing like this in 8.

Will do some checking to find out how to do this in windows 8.

Well found out how...some simple googling 2 minutes later...works for both desktops and laptops.

Change Network location from Public to Private in Windows 8. - Spiceworks