5 ms·

Honestly? It's 2017. Just throttle bandwidth and give your internet away for free. There are some obvious cases in which this is unacceptable, but they are f

Honestly? It's 2017. Just throttle bandwidth and give your internet away for free. There are some obvious cases in which this is unacceptable, but they are few and far between. The overwhelming majority of captive portals I see are just trying to get your contact info... so now you have two reasons why they should disappear.

BillyParadise 10y ago
Ah, first world problems. Where I am, data connections are out of reach for the vast majority of the population (yet somehow, they all seem to have smartphones - go figger). Everyone goes to the mall, not to shop, it would seem, but to use the free wifi and bask in the comfort of free aircon. Captive portals are here to stay in places around the world, and like it or not, they are a widely used solution that is not going away any time soon. I for one applaud the author of this website's attempts to shine light on the problem of authenticating to this network type.
innocenat 10y ago
There are still part of the world where you are require by law to log who is accessing the internet, in case he/she does something illegal.
- slang800 10y ago
  Yet another fantastic reason to get rid of captive portals. They spy on you _and_ are frequently broken.
arjie 10y ago
I don't want your shitty slow internet. I want to pay $20 for fast enough Internet on a plane, not some 56.6kbps bullshit.
- pmontra 10y ago
  $20 is one month worth of broadband in some countries. Anybody can do what he wants with his money, but $2 would be a more appropriate price tag for a few hours of Internet. If you're working, $20 could be OK though because you're gaining more.
  - raverbashing 10y ago
    On a plane? > but $2 would be a more appropriate price tag for a few hours of Internet Correct. That's (one of the reasons) why Starbucks coffee is pricier.
  - atomwaffel 10y ago
    It also depends on where you are. Getting high-speed, low-latency internet to a shopping centre in the middle of a metropolitan area is probably a bit easier and cheaper than getting it to a plane flying 40000 feet above the Atlantic. And while I probably wouldn't pay $20 for eight hours of internet on a plane (unless I really needed it), I don't find the price tag entirely unjustified.
lloeki 10y ago
> The overwhelming majority of captive portals I see are just trying to get your contact info... IIRC in some countries they're required (by law) to do so, because, y'know, terrorists.
- Semaphor 10y ago
  Far worse than terrorists, filesharers.
jandrese 10y ago
Most captive portals I run across are trying to verify that you are in fact a paying customer. Typically by making you enter your hotel room number and name or something. Normally you would think it would just be easier to set a wifi password and skip the captive portal nonsense, but so many vendors harbor the fantasy that other people will pay for the wifi so they have to leave it open and put a "buy 24 hours of internet for only $30!" link in there. I hate captive portals. They are such a nuisance, especially when you have your machine configured to always connect via VPN.

BillyParadise 10y ago

Ah, first world problems. Where I am, data connections are out of reach for the vast majority of the population (yet somehow, they all seem to have smartphones - go figger). Everyone goes to the mall, not to shop, it would seem, but to use the free wifi and bask in the comfort of free aircon. Captive portals are here to stay in places around the world, and like it or not, they are a widely used solution that is not going away any time soon. I for one applaud the author of this website's attempts to shine light on the problem of authenticating to this network type.

innocenat 10y ago

There are still part of the world where you are require by law to log who is accessing the internet, in case he/she does something illegal.

slang800 10y ago
Yet another fantastic reason to get rid of captive portals. They spy on you _and_ are frequently broken.

arjie 10y ago

I don't want your shitty slow internet. I want to pay $20 for fast enough Internet on a plane, not some 56.6kbps bullshit.

pmontra 10y ago
$20 is one month worth of broadband in some countries. Anybody can do what he wants with his money, but $2 would be a more appropriate price tag for a few hours of Internet. If you're working, $20 could be OK though because you're gaining more.
- raverbashing 10y ago
  On a plane? > but $2 would be a more appropriate price tag for a few hours of Internet Correct. That's (one of the reasons) why Starbucks coffee is pricier.
- atomwaffel 10y ago
  It also depends on where you are. Getting high-speed, low-latency internet to a shopping centre in the middle of a metropolitan area is probably a bit easier and cheaper than getting it to a plane flying 40000 feet above the Atlantic. And while I probably wouldn't pay $20 for eight hours of internet on a plane (unless I really needed it), I don't find the price tag entirely unjustified.

lloeki 10y ago

> The overwhelming majority of captive portals I see are just trying to get your contact info... IIRC in some countries they're required (by law) to do so, because, y'know, terrorists.

Semaphor 10y ago
Far worse than terrorists, filesharers.

jandrese 10y ago

Most captive portals I run across are trying to verify that you are in fact a paying customer. Typically by making you enter your hotel room number and name or something. Normally you would think it would just be easier to set a wifi password and skip the captive portal nonsense, but so many vendors harbor the fantasy that other people will pay for the wifi so they have to leave it open and put a "buy 24 hours of internet for only $30!" link in there. I hate captive portals. They are such a nuisance, especially when you have your machine configured to always connect via VPN.