per - station realm lists are dynamically generating per - station for hot spot connections to access points by roaming stations . a query for a list of realms is received from a roaming station when connecting to a hot spot . using an mac address or other station identity , a list of available realms narrowed to a subset of per - station realms sent to the station . narrowing is performed on - the - fly with respect to at least one aspects . a last n realms are retrieved from a database record searched by mac address . the list is further narrowed by removing realms that are inaccessible or otherwise recently shown to have bad link quality . additional ranking factors can narrow or rearrange the realm list based on financial agreements , popularity , trends , and the like . a selection from the list of realms is received from the station . the access point then authenticates the station with the selected realm . if successful , data traffic concerning the station can be forwarded through the hot spot on behalf of the selected realm .