Windows Wireless Service Suddenly Appears On My Pc!

Good morning from Alicante, Spain! Yesterday. I did a general cleanup of my Thinkpad laptop and did an update of Lenovo software and lo and behold this morning there appears in the bottom right hand corner a little staircase showing 4 bar service and wifi tower. It could have appeared before and I may not have noticed it. In any case positioning the cursor over it, it appears that I have magically been connected to Windows Wireless Service!
I am a bit suspicious of people connecting to my computer without my permission, however, I believe that I may have inadvertently given permission to collect data to Lenovo, on my update. My question is - What is this service and what does it do? Is there any benefit to me, such as being able to access internet if my own service provider goes down, etc? I notice that there appear to be a lot of people complaining about errors and not being able to obtain the service. Is there a down side, such as things not working on my computer if WWS isnt working?

 

How did you connect before this?
In Windows 7, in the Control Panel, you will see Network and Sharing Center.
When you click on that, you get information on your network and can change settings.

 

The name that pops up when you hover over the network icon in the notification area is the name someone has given to the router you are currently connected to and which may or may not be the network you thought you were connected to. It is nothing to do with the Windows background service of the same name. You need to be clear about local networks within your laptop's range; which one you should be connecting to, and ensure it is protected, i.e. you have to know the wireless password to be able to connect to it. As you seem to have connected to this network without a password it would appear it is not protected and may not be safe to use. If you double click on the icon you may see a list of local wireless networks. You need to know which is yours.