4 ms·

I am slightly worried that a lot of public Wifi seems to be unable to redirect you to the login page (think Starbucks) if you visit https:// https:// sites. Th

I am slightly worried that a lot of public Wifi seems to be unable to redirect you to the login page (think Starbucks) if you visit https:// https:// sites. The Guardian was my go-to for such situation so that I could login and get online. I'm not sure how these redirects work (DNS? Inserting JS into the page?) but it seems to be a common problem.

sporkenfang 10y ago
If you go to the Starbucks website the Accept Terms Of Service redirect seems to work fine... that's what I've usually done anyhow (shrug).
- andy_ppp 10y ago
  Starbucks.com is https and I'm pretty sure it didn't work in Japan. YMMV.
Ajedi32 10y ago
They usually work by MITMing your connection to whatever site you're trying to visit and serving an HTTP redirect (maybe 307?) to the captive portal page. As a substitute for The Guardian, maybe try http://example.com http://example.com?
- andy_ppp 10y ago
  But eventually all the sites will be HTTPS - I've no idea what non-techy users do when faced with this apparent brokenness.
  - robin_reala 10y ago
    I’d be surprised if example.com goes https-only. Regardless, if all sites go https only then free wifi providers will have to come up with some other way of redirecting you to their signup page.
epmatsw 10y ago
Ran into this with Southwest's wifi this week. HSTS preloading makes it worse too. No dice with Google, Facebook, my website, etc. Just lots of error pages until I figured out what was going wrong.
wolf550e 10y ago
http://neverssl.com/ http://neverssl.com/
marcoperaza 10y ago
There seems to be some protocol by which operating systems automatically launch the login page upon connecting to the WiFi network. Unfortunately, it seems to fail pretty often and probably doesn't work for bridged connections.
- libeclipse 10y ago
  On Nougat it seems to work flawlessly most of the time. I wonder what the protocol is. Maybe a request to the access point's DNS server to see what IP is returned and then connect to that?
- JimDabell 10y ago
  There's no standard protocol in widespread use. Typically operating systems attempt to fetch a known resource when connecting to a new Wi-Fi network, and if it redirects, then they treat the destination as the captive portal sign-in page and display it with special chrome / modally. The URL each platform attempts to load varies by vendor and version.
  - ethagnawl 10y ago
    Do you have any links to resources or know what name(s) people use when talking about this strategy? I'd be interested to know which URL Debian attempts to fetch, but I'm not sure how I'd even begin to search for the answer.
    - kalleboo 10y ago
      "Captive portal detection" And here's your answer: http://network-test.debian.org/nm http://network-test.debian.org/nm
      - ethagnawl 10y ago
        Thanks!
    - jlgaddis 10y ago
andrewfromx 10y ago
ha, American here and I use usatoday.com for that. But neverssl.com is great find.
LeoPanthera 10y ago
In-flight wifi on United has solved this problem by giving you an explicit page to go to. They say to go to unitedwifi.com to activate the connection.

sporkenfang 10y ago

If you go to the Starbucks website the Accept Terms Of Service redirect seems to work fine... that's what I've usually done anyhow (shrug).

andy_ppp 10y ago
Starbucks.com is https and I'm pretty sure it didn't work in Japan. YMMV.

Ajedi32 10y ago

They usually work by MITMing your connection to whatever site you're trying to visit and serving an HTTP redirect (maybe 307?) to the captive portal page. As a substitute for The Guardian, maybe try http://example.com http://example.com?

andy_ppp 10y ago
But eventually all the sites will be HTTPS - I've no idea what non-techy users do when faced with this apparent brokenness.
- robin_reala 10y ago
  I’d be surprised if example.com goes https-only. Regardless, if all sites go https only then free wifi providers will have to come up with some other way of redirecting you to their signup page.

epmatsw 10y ago

Ran into this with Southwest's wifi this week. HSTS preloading makes it worse too. No dice with Google, Facebook, my website, etc. Just lots of error pages until I figured out what was going wrong.

wolf550e 10y ago

http://neverssl.com/ http://neverssl.com/

marcoperaza 10y ago

There seems to be some protocol by which operating systems automatically launch the login page upon connecting to the WiFi network. Unfortunately, it seems to fail pretty often and probably doesn't work for bridged connections.

libeclipse 10y ago
On Nougat it seems to work flawlessly most of the time. I wonder what the protocol is. Maybe a request to the access point's DNS server to see what IP is returned and then connect to that?
JimDabell 10y ago
There's no standard protocol in widespread use. Typically operating systems attempt to fetch a known resource when connecting to a new Wi-Fi network, and if it redirects, then they treat the destination as the captive portal sign-in page and display it with special chrome / modally. The URL each platform attempts to load varies by vendor and version.
- ethagnawl 10y ago
  Do you have any links to resources or know what name(s) people use when talking about this strategy? I'd be interested to know which URL Debian attempts to fetch, but I'm not sure how I'd even begin to search for the answer.
  - kalleboo 10y ago
    "Captive portal detection" And here's your answer: http://network-test.debian.org/nm http://network-test.debian.org/nm
    - ethagnawl 10y ago
      Thanks!
  - jlgaddis 10y ago

andrewfromx 10y ago

ha, American here and I use usatoday.com for that. But neverssl.com is great find.

LeoPanthera 10y ago

In-flight wifi on United has solved this problem by giving you an explicit page to go to. They say to go to unitedwifi.com to activate the connection.