It must be me. I mean, this stuff just works, right?

My 2007 MacBook Pro connects to my own wifi network happily enough. I can sit here on the sofa all day without any interruptions, the OS remembers I was connected when I close the lid and reconnects me automatically, all is fine and dandy.

I have been able to connect to wireless networks in the past, both officially and when someone neglected to password protect their basestation - I only used it for testing, honest guv. Now, when I try to connect to anyone else's wireless network, I get the cold shoulder. It's happened at the local village hall, where the password was simply "incorrect", even when copied diligently from the publicly displayed sign. The same thing happened while staying with my parents this past few days. No amount of re-entering the password, combinations of letters and so on, allowed me to get beyond knowing the network was there.

What happens is I can see the wifi network I want to connect to. I select it, and enter the given password, to be given a cursory shake of the dialog box. I simply cannot connect to other networks, and it's beginning to bug me now.

I'm running OS X Lion 10.7.3 (as I type). I use a Virgin Internet supplied Netgear basestation, but I can't tell what boxes the other networks were using. My parents' wifi came from PlusNet, and the router was hidden under some furniture (at mother's behest) so I couldn't access it to find out what it was.

Is there anything obvious I've missed?

In the past, when I've had issues connecting to certain wireless networks with a Mac, I've had to place a $ symbol before the password, and despite this not being part of the actual password, it allowed me access to the wireless network.
Your mileage may vary, but it couldn't hurt to try this, I guess.

Mark

Thanks Mark. I did read something like this earlier.

I'll try it on Friday if I get a chance.

Right. I've had a chance to test connections on a third party wifi network, and it worked perfectly.

That must mean my parents told me the wrong password. I am very unsurprised by this.