How am I suddenly able to connect to wireless without the ethernet cord being connected to the comp

[saunders2]

I have the HP Pavilion p7-1262 Desktop desktop.   I am suddenly able to connect to wireless internet without the ethernet cord being connected to the computer. How is that possible? I was not able to do this before and have not installed anything new. Did this computer come preinstalled with the ability to connect to wireless without an ethernet cord?

[banhien]

@saunders2 

The specs of your machine is

         https://support.hp.com/nz-en/document/c03369731

It has  802.11 wireless b/g/n & Bluetooth 3.0 half-length PCI-Express Mini card therefore you can connect to internet w/o a need of a LAN cable .

But, it won't come up automatically UNLESS your network is an OPEN network (or unsecured). Please check your wifi router to make sure your home network is secured. You don't want strangers to enter your network do you ?

Regards.

[saunders2]

My network is not open, and it is password protected, that was not the issue.  The odd thing is that  previously, I could not  get online unless an ethernet cord was connected to the computer, but now I can connect to the intent without the cord.

[itsmyname]

@saunders2 -- are you the only person in your home who has physical access to your computer?

If not, somebody else may have used your computer to connect to your home WiFi network, with the password for your network. Once connected and "remembered", your computer will have saved the WiFi password.

[saunders2]

No one has physical access to my computer. I'm sorry, I think my question was not clear. I know how to secure my network, and I know how entering and saving passwords work. However, I don't know about the specific network adapters that may or may not be preinstalled.  A previous HP community  told me  my model came preinstalled with "802.11 wireless b/g/n & Bluetooth 3.0 half-length PCI-Express Mini card," and therefore always had the capability to connect to the internet without using an ethernet cable.  However, in the past I have not been able to connect without the cable and then suddenly-- I was able to. I guess it is a mystery.