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Help WPS button on bottom of my phone

It would help to know what kind of phone you had and what version of Android it was running.
 
I've never heard of this button on a phone (what phone do you have?), but my best guess is that it's used for the wifi hotspot feature on your device. You can normally find a WPS button on a wifi router. It's used for easy wifi access. For example, to allow a device to connect to your network without entering a passphrase.

I don't have any other guesses as to what it might be for. Have you looked in the user manual for your device?


Edit:
Also, is this a physical hardware button or a button on the display?
 
You will sure know that I am an old lady. I have an android MOTO X first generation phone (cost 299.00-new). Now yesterday, I was just "learning and playing with the phone" and hit a button that had two curved arrows(1 pointing up, the other pointing down). I think it was called a WPS. Anyway....I for the love of me cannot find it again on my phone today to answer your question. I do not have an owner's manual and thus I found this site and registered and sought out help. The service carrier is Republic wireless.

I am asking because I also ACCIDENTLY hit a button called a launcher-and cannot unlaunch whatever it is and I think either the WPS or the LAUNCHER button caused my current problem: which is that I cannot get ANY wifi EXCEPT at my house. Not at McDonalds or Panera Bread, or the pizza place. I really messed something up and do not want to tell my hubby when he gets back home from over the road trip----was hoping to fix it.
 
They call me grandpa. ;)

Is this what it looked like?

wps_logo_small.png


WPS stands for WiFi Protected Setup. If your WiFi Access Point* on your router supports it, you press a button on your router and you press the WPS icon on your phone and boom, you have a secures connection. (*most people have WiFi built into their routers, but a router really is not WiFi ... sorry, my inner geek seems to want to make your head explode ;) )

I would guess that your phone had a secure connection at home already so that's why it's still working but the public WiFi at McD's or Panera's needs to re-authenticate. I don't think WPS is the issue. WPS will look for the WPS information from a WiFi signal for so long and then turn off, it shouldn't stay enabled. Just to be sure, on your phone go to menu>settings>wifi and then tap on the menu and you should see the WPS settings.

The Launcher is the phone's desktop. Pressing the Launcher icon is probably just a way to get into the settings for your launcher. That shouldn't have disabled Wifi either.

Most public WiFi access points require you accepting their terms of service before you can use them. The next time you're at a Panera's you should see their wifi in the network list, open a browser window and you'll see the terms and a button to accept it. Once you do that your session will be active, but you'll have to do that every time you go to a public hotspot.
 
Yes, that is exactly what it looked like. I will re-read your information again tomorrow until it sinks in. This toothache is driving me nuts today and I think I will be able to follow it better tomorrow. You are a gem for helping and I cannot thank you enough!
 
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