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Hotel or office Wi-Fi: your devices can’t see each other.

It’s on purpose: many public and business Wi-Fi networks, and home routers’ guest networks, isolate every device. You have internet, but your phone and your computer can’t talk to each other, whatever local transfer app you use. Only the network’s administrator can lift it. What works everywhere: your phone’s hotspot, which makes a network of your own in a minute.

Reviewed on 21 September 2026 by Fabien Chauveau, who makes GreySpace. These checks apply to other local transfer apps too.

How to tell.

Three signs. First make sure the app is open on both devices: if not, the list stays empty too.

  1. Internet works, the devices don’t

    Both devices browse the web, sit on the same Wi-Fi, have the app open, and the list stays empty. GreySpace says no device answers on the network.

  2. A guest, public or shared network

    A Wi-Fi name with “Guest” in it, a page where you had to accept terms or type a code, a hotel, station, school or coworking Wi-Fi.

  3. A large company or school network

    On a large network, your phone and your computer can land in two different parts of it, even on the same Wi-Fi. GreySpace searches all of your part of the network; beyond that, it relies on announcements that don’t cross from one part to another.

What still works.

From quickest to slowest.

  1. Your phone’s hotspot

    Turn it on, and connect the computer (or the other phone) to that Wi-Fi. You’re alone on that network, nothing keeps you apart. Step by step.

  2. At home, leave the guest network

    Connect both devices to your router’s main network, not its guest network.

  3. At work, ask IT

    They can tell you which network lets devices see each other, or allow it for yours.

People often ask

For anything else, email us.

Why does a Wi-Fi isolate devices?

So that a stranger on the same Wi-Fi can’t reach your computer. It’s called “client isolation” or “AP isolation”. It protects you, but it also blocks any app that links two devices directly.

A service like WeTransfer works on this Wi-Fi. Why not GreySpace?

Because the cloud takes the round trip through the internet: your files go up to a server, then the other device downloads them. GreySpace sends them straight from one device to the other, with no server, so the two need to be able to talk. On an isolating network, use your hotspot: you keep the direct transfer, with nothing uploaded to the internet.

I had to accept terms to join this Wi-Fi. Does that block it too?

The sign-in page itself doesn’t. But these networks often isolate devices. If both devices went through that page and still can’t see each other, it’s isolation: use your hotspot.

See also

Didn’t find your answer? Write to [email protected] or drop by Discord with your two devices, your network (home router, office, hotspot) and the message GreySpace shows.

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