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Re: How is public WiFi meant to work?

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On 20/04/2019 3:02 pm, Rich wrote:
> Sylvia Else <sylvia@email.invalid> wrote:
>> In the days of yore, one chose a public WiFi node, and then when one
>> entered a URL into a browser, the WiFi node served up a page that
>> redirected one to a terms-acceptance page.  One clicked on that.  Job
>> done.
>>
>> These days, the URL one enters is likely to be for the https
>> protocol.  The WiFi node cannot redirect that, and nor can it pretend
>> to be the target page.
>>
>> So, in today's world, just how is this meant to work?
>>
>> I seem to have no end of trouble with it, at times resorting to
>> entering the URL of a page of my own that is not https based.
> 
> That is the solution, well, a http page, not necessarially your own,
> but at least when you own it you know it will not suddenly switch to
> https out of the blue.
> 
> Android phones work around this glitch by querying a set of google
> http: servers that presumably google specifically setup for keeping
> these captive portal pages working (and, of course, giving Google even
> more metadata with which to market things to you).
> 

What a kludge!

Well, that's a pain. I'm trying to assist an aged person with zero IT 
smarts (or let that be negative, if it's meaningful). I was hoping there 
was a solution that I could just implement. Even bookmarking a suitable 
URL in Chrome may be asking too much.

A quick ap search (there's an ap for everything, right?) didn't reveal 
anything useful.

On the face of it, any site should do, as long as its domain name 
exists, since one isn't going to reach it until after the WiFi node has 
done its thing. Except for Google, since searches sometimes seem to be 
allowed through. I think I've found a way to put something on the home 
screen that starts Chrome and makes it go to the chosen URL. Took some 
doing - Chrome seems to have ideas of its own about when it's going to 
let one do that. I think they must have already incorporated my 
confiseauser.jar library. Where are my licence fees?

Sylvia.

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Thread

How is public WiFi meant to work? Sylvia Else <sylvia@email.invalid> - 2019-04-20 12:50 +1000
  Re: How is public WiFi meant to work? Rich <rich@example.invalid> - 2019-04-20 05:02 +0000
    Re: How is public WiFi meant to work? Mike Spencer <mds@bogus.nodomain.nowhere> - 2019-04-20 03:11 -0300
    Re: How is public WiFi meant to work? Sylvia Else <sylvia@email.invalid> - 2019-04-20 16:54 +1000
  Re: How is public WiFi meant to work? Marko Rauhamaa <marko@pacujo.net> - 2019-04-20 10:38 +0300
  Re: How is public WiFi meant to work? RS Wood <rsw@therandymon.com> - 2019-04-20 09:02 +0000
    Re: How is public WiFi meant to work? Rich <rich@example.invalid> - 2019-04-20 14:44 +0000
      Re: How is public WiFi meant to work? RS Wood <rsw@therandymon.com> - 2019-04-21 19:56 -0400
  Re: How is public WiFi meant to work? not@telling.you.invalid (Computer Nerd Kev) - 2019-04-21 00:12 +0000

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