Can this wifi adapted pick up public networks?

[2034d9]

Before I start I should mention I know about absolutely nothing about networking.

So I bought a TP-Link TL-WN881ND 300Mbps wifi adapter. Installed it on my rig along with all the drivers and works perfectly at home, with my home wifi.

However I recently moved to my term time place, there's wifi there, but it's public wifi, (it's university wifi if you're interested) and my adapter won't detect any public networks. It can detect other people's routers and even my phone's hotspot but that's it. My laptop and phone can detect and connect to those networks, even with their adapters.

So am I missing something obvious?

 

[Autocrat]

Try searching for the Network by name, it may just be bad signal and now showing up.
It could also be operating on anther frequency perhaps?

You could also try moving locations, your computer could be in a dead spot.

 

[greens]

Hm, there is ostensibly no difference between a public and private wifi network. Lets refer to them as Open and Secure networks, respectively.

So they just don't appear on your list of available connections? The name of the network is called an SSID. Have you tried "Manually entering the SSID"?