There is a little application called wi-fi backup manager that I found out about recently. I have it on a thumb drive, and it allows a visitor in my home to use my wi-fi just by plugging the thumb drive into that person's computer. This way, I do not have to reveal my password to that person. Very handy. I found out about it on Kim Komando's newsletter, I believe. Here is a link that might be useful: wi-fi backup

One of my thermostats recently died after 10yrs so I started looking for a "smart" thermostat. After browsing the web I concluded I'd try the Nest (crowd fav) and the Ecobee3 (newest model but ecobee seems to have a very good reputation online). I wanted to share some of my initial thoughts between the two since there isn't much out there yet. Before buying these stats I realized I needed the 24v common wire connected and luckily our house was wired with 6 strand wire and all I had to do was hook up the 5th wire to the C terminal. This made life easy for me. I bought the Nest from Lowe's so I had that immediately. The Ecobee3 was bought direct a week later and it was 2 day shipping. The Nest had more heft and solid feel. It felt like it was worth the $250 whereas the Ecobee3 is very lightweight plasticy cheap feeling like my existing stat was. It was a bit hard to believe it was more then the Nest. I did have some cosmetic damage on my Ecobee3 and am in the process of exchanging the unit with them. Installation was similar on both. I had 5 wires and both units started right up after I turned the power back on. Ecobee3 has more initial questions than the Nest if I remember correctly. Once setup the Ecobee3 definitely has more things configurable for your HVAC system vs the Nest. The Nest app is smoother to operate. Ecobee3 app is a little clunky but has more settings to customize. Ecobee3 doesn't show the energy savings/usage yet but it says that feature is coming soon. The one thing that really interested me was the remote sensor on the Ecobee3. This stat is on our 2nd floor. We primarily occupy 2 bedrooms and if this thing can average the two rooms to better even out the temperature that would be great. We have tried adjusting the vents but there is still quite a bit of difference. Its a bad time to review these stats right now because my HVAC system isn't really running much. Just a tad at night to keep the house warm. I've decided to keep the Ecobee3 and return the Nest based on the more configurable settings and the remote sensor with comfort in mind.

Thanks mike. I guess I should have said 'reboot' in my initial post rather than restart. Yes, I rebooted several times to get the opportunity to enter the security password. This pad does not have cellular capability so when wi fi is gone, it is disconnected. It certainly used to connect to other networks, but I haven't checked lately. I was beginning to think that the pad was retaining wifi connection, but today it is again back to disconnected, still with the blue check indicating that it is connected. The only difference from several days ago, is that the password on 'client ID' is still showing. I had assumed that the showing password was somehow involved in the wifi retention. I have considered 'forget your WiFi', but I don't know where to get the ssid. I suppose it is built in but I don't understand this stuff that well. Edit for addition: OK, I got brave (or could have been stupid) and 'forgot the network' and at least for the time being, the pad is reconnected. It was easy to reconnect because my regular network was still waiting for me to re choose it and it immediately asked for the password and I was properly connected. The password isn't showing in 'client ID'. Perhaps it was never the appropriate place to add it anyway!? I do see a couple of possible differences in the settings that I wrote down if things didn't work. There may have been a difference in the DNS setting (whatever that is) (or it might have been a hand written typo on my part) but the new setting's last 7 chars are now 171.2.226 and I scribed 172.2.226. And under the area of HTTP Proxy (whatever that is), OFF is highlighted, and before there was a space below where it said URL. Was it waiting for some website? So, for the time being, things are in order. It took 2.5 days to lose the network the last time, so we'll see.?!

This is from Microsoft. You can try to do some of this. http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/fix-network-adapter-problems#1TC=windows-8 If not, then maybe take it in to whomever does your computer repairs. I believe it's a part that can be changed. Here's another wiki that might be helpful: http://www.wikihow.com/Reinstall-Wireless-Drivers