http://blogs.msdn.com/jbristowe/archive/tags/Miscellaneous/default.aspxTags: Miscellaneousen-CACommunityServer 2.1 SP1 (Build: 61025.2)http://blogs.msdn.com/jbristowe/archive/2006/09/19/762625.aspxWed, 20 Sep 2006 00:00:00 GMT91d46819-8472-40ad-a661-2c78acb4018c:762625John Bristowe0http://blogs.msdn.com/jbristowe/comments/762625.aspxhttp://blogs.msdn.com/jbristowe/commentrss.aspx?PostID=762625http://blogs.msdn.com/jbristowe/rsscomments.aspx?PostID=762625<P>Have you ever wondered why you can't connect to a Wi-Fi provider when you're on the road?</P> <P>Well, it would appear as though the routers that some providers use deny connection requests for unknown <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_agent">User-Agent</a> strings. For example, I'm currently in <a href="http://www.city.kelowna.bc.ca/">Kelowna</a> for the <a href="http://www.dnic.ca/">Developer Night in Canada (DNIC)</a> user group tour and I'm trying to connect to the local wireless network. If I use IE 7.0 and its default <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_agent">User-Agent</a> string (i.e. Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Win32)), I receive no response from the provider on the initial request to connect. However, if I modify the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_agent">User-Agent</a> string to mimic the one used by IE 6.0, it works. Go figure.</P> <P>Now, why would a provider want to deny connection requests for unknown <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_agent">User-Agent</a> strings? I can't say. Most folks know that there's no standard around the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_agent">User-Agent</a> string and it can be easily modified on the client. If you know why this is the case, please leave me a comment to let me know.</P><img src="http://blogs.msdn.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=762625" width="1" height="1">Miscellaneous