Bizarre wireless network config issues

[MikeB]

I use Windows zero-config for my wireless network access. I have a D-
Link DWL-G650 card (b/g).

At home I regularly connect using wireless. That's how I work most of
the time.

Two days ago I took my car in for service at a dealer and tried to use
their wiFi access point. Whatever I did, the network would not show up
in the "View Available Networks" window. I spent the entire 3 hours
trying to resolve this issue.

Then I went home and reconnected to my default network at home, where
I worked fine for the next two days.

This afternoon, I took my laptop to my daughter's music studio. When I
opened the WiFi "View Available Networks" panel here, it showed a list
including all the wiFi networks I couldn't see at the dealer!!! WTF??

After two reboots, things returned to normal and showed only the
networks available here at the studio.

What is going on?

 

[Jack \(MVP-Networking\).]

Hi
Did you ask the deal for the credentials, may be their Access Point SSID is
Off, or and has other special settings.
Jack (MVP-Networking).

 

[MikeB]

Hi
Did you ask the deal for the credentials, may be their Access Point SSID is
Off, or and has other special settings.
Jack (MVP-Networking).

It was just a regular, unsecured network. There was another customer
there using it and we compared settings.

If it was turned off, why would it appear in my list of available
networks two days later in an entire different location 30 miles from
the original location??