Connect android to free wifi?

Heedtheadvice

So there you have an answer to your question plus warnings of the downsides!

The reason free WiFi is offered is to make it attractive to customers and thus hopefully get new or keep customers. Nothing to do with security!

Yes you get (perhaps limited) WiFi for free but sometimes you get more than you want! Would it have been right to keep you in the dark about the potential downsides maybe saving you hassle and money in the long term?

AndyPix

MONEYTREE wrote: »

I have this problem every time I go anywhere and so would be really grateful for some help :-)

I travel with an android tablet. I have been taught that, to connect to free wifi (cafes, hotels, trains etc) I should open "settings" and go to "Wlan", select the correct wifi from the list, then click "connect". Then open the browser and there you go... or it might open onto the hotel's page and I have to sign in.

However, although I have no problem with the first bit, and it comes up with "Connected", the second bit almost never works. When I open the browser it takes me to a google home page, with a message saying "no connection". I then spend 10 frustrating minutes going back and forth from the Wlan-connect page and clicking "connect" again and again, then back to the browser. I don't know why I bother because doing this has never got me connected. I find that, if it does not connect automatically by itself, there is nothing I can do to make it do so.

Often I end up begging the staff for help and sometimes they fiddle with it for a bit then it connects but they don't show me what they did. However, often they just shrug. So most of the time when I am in an area of free wifi, I cannot connect to it, and that is a shame!

If anyone can tell me where I am going wrong I would be so grateful.

As google forces https , and ther splash page of many hotels etc is not, your phone "gets its knickers in a twist" when the browser tries to redirect it to the splash page from where it was trying to go to.


Next time this happens, once "connected" to the hotspot, try to browse to another web page (not google) for example metro.co.uk ..


Then you should be able to get the splash page, accept the conditions and be connected properly.


Hope that helps
Andy

jshm2

You have been told wrong.

Unless you're a BT or Fon customer in most cases you will need to pay/register for wifi. In this case you will need to open the logon page in your browser before it will let you "surf" further.

MONEYTREE_2

AndyPix wrote: »

As google forces https , and ther splash page of many hotels etc is not, your phone "gets its knickers in a twist" when the browser tries to redirect it to the splash page from where it was trying to go to.
Andy

This seems to be the correct answer, so thanks Andy next time I travel, I will try this!