I was in a local public library today and tried to connect to the public WIFI, but was given an "unable to resolve host" error. The WIFI was unlocked and no key or PW was required.

Why might this have happened? Anyone experience a similar situation, or have a probable cause?

i have the same situation sometimes.... i dont know why happens :S

I had a similar experience with a public Wi-Fi. Repeated attempts gave me error.

However, when I set up a connection through "Settings" "Internet Connections" and following the prompts, it worked just fine...

If it uses java like UK users of BT Openzone it will not work. It uses a javascript when you change it from BT Openzone account to Vodafone user etc it calls a script that cant be ran on the n900. Also other AP's may use a similar script to query the device which will not work either.

it may be the wifi bug of the N900. it is very silly sometimes but keep retry until you get connected

Or if it calls java dont waste your time.

I should clarify - I was given the connection, accrding to the N900's connection utility, but any attempt at using the connection gave "unconnected" responses - from browser, widgets etc.

Just to be clear, you're certain it was the library wi-fi you connected to? And not something called 'Free Public WiFi', which isn't?

I had a similar problem yesterday. Unable to connect via public wi-fi. Finally, I turned off the N900 and re-started it. Connection worked. Don't know what the problem was.

Linux and it's wlan stack. Buahahah.

No really, I do not know but I´m also having these issues randomly. Happy thing is that after FW updates it connects most of time and before it didn't at all from dmesg i can see that wlan fw is down and rebooted and trys to connect but then just out of nowhere after giving me network errors it connects. Without saying all the other devices work flawlessly. Looks like they have quite much data on this issue in bugzilla so let's hope that they are able to get this on level what it should have been months ago.