<human>: Condense the text into a few key points

Hi e'rybody! /askreddit definitely isn't the right subreddit to ask this question, but perhaps someone can help me (out of the kindness of their heart), despite my ignorance. 

So I just moved to a new country, and am getting settled into my new apartment. First things first (in this technological day and age) was to get connected to the Internet and let my dad know that I landed safely, etc. My landlord tells me the name of the wireless network, and says that there's "no password". I look it up on my iPhone (what I am currently typing on) and sure enough I can connect to said unsecured network. Immediately I assume that there will be no problem connecting with my travel laptop...and so the issues begin. 

I look up the same network on my laptop (it's an Acer running on windows XP) using the standard "wireless network connection" program, and it says that the same unsecured wireless network that my phone is currently connected to is, in fact, a secured network and thusly needs a password. Is there some security setting on windows that I need to change? Or any logical reason at all as to why there would be a difference of opinion over the same network between my phone and my laptop?
<bot>: Phone can connect to wireless network, computer says "bitch, please" to same network, demands a password that doesn't exist.