Wi-Fi connectivity issues

When I'm traveling around I pick up some unlocked hot spots with moderate to good signal reception. Yet somehow i keep getting 'unable to connect' or 'can't find server' messages. Since i had my touch in early January, i've only been able to connect to 2 hotspots other than my home's.
Any ideas?

It could be MAC address filtering.

I used to do this due to compatibility problems between my router and a card that was accessing my network - it wouldn't work nice with the WEP security enabled so had to leave the network open and just limit access to the MAC addresses I trusted - not very secure but did the job at the time.

If someone came round with a laptop they could see my network as open but were unable to actually use the network - i.e. no access to computers, shares or internet.

This might be what you're finding with the wireless networks that you've come across.

Thx RNDdave. I was initially wondering if I may have to change certain settings on the ipod. It seems like almost everyone here may have that kind of filtering. maybe.