Computer Network Help

Okay, my dad is a total computer illiterate. He can't figure out his way into a flash drive by himself, LITERALLY.So, he's staying in Orange County for a week for work, and brought his old laptop (windows vista) to the hotel. This hotel has high speed wireless interwebs, and it's supposed to have a password. I taught my dad to connect to the internet the day before he left, and he got it, so he got connected to the internet, but he didn't receive a prompt to type in a password. He got 'connected', got on FireFox, but it won't let him connect, and it won't let him access the net on Internet Explorer. So, I told him to go to:

Start Menu>Search>cmd.exe>Run as Admin>ping www.bbc.com

and the ping returned successful. What is going on?

Last time I stayed at a hotel with free wireless, the wireless wasn't password protected, but somehow they redirected all traffic to their Terms of Use and Services page, which required you to click an "I agree" button and then that allowed you to use the internet.It's hard to say without knowing exactly what the setup at the hotel is. He should ask the person at the front desk for help. He can even bring his laptop down there and they will probably be able to help him work it out.

Another question would be is he connecting to the CORRECT wireless network???I've seen before organisations nad hotesl that have there own private Intranet with wifi connectivity, and a completely different network for patrons/internet...