Captive Portal Not Appearing? Check Pop-Up Blockers and VPNs

Modified on Wed, 15 Oct at 3:09 PM

A captive portal is a web page that you're required to interact with (authenticate) before accessing our Wi-Fi network. If the captive portal isn't appearing, you won't be able to connect to the internet.

This article explains how pop-up blockers and VPNs can prevent captive portals from loading and provides troubleshooting steps.

Why Isn't the Captive Portal Showing Up?

The most common reasons for a captive portal not appearing are:

Pop-Up Blockers: Captive portals often appear as pop-up windows or redirects. If your browser's pop-up blocker is enabled, it can prevent the portal from loading.
VPN (Virtual Private Network): VPNs encrypt your internet traffic and route it through a server in a different location. This can interfere with the captive portal's ability to detect and redirect you to the login page.

Troubleshooting Steps:

Disable Pop-Up Blocker:
- Disable the pop-up blocker in your default browser. Here's how to do it in common browsers:
  - Google Chrome:
    1. Click the three dots (Menu) in the top-right corner.
    2. Click Settings.
    3. Type "pop-ups" in the search bar.
    4. Click Site Settings then Pop-ups and redirects.
    5. Choose the Sites can send pop-ups and use redirects.
  - Mozilla Firefox:
    1. Click the three horizontal lines (Menu) in the top-right corner.
    2. Click Settings.
    3. Click Privacy & Security on the left sidebar.
    4. Scroll down to Permissions and locate Block pop-up windows.
    5. Uncheck the box to disable the pop-up blocker, or click Exceptions to add the Wi-Fi network's domain.
  - Safari (macOS):
    1. Click Safari in the menu bar, then select Preferences.
    2. Click the Websites tab.
    3. Select Pop-up Windows on the left sidebar.
    4. Change the setting for the current website (if listed) or set the default to "Allow."
  - Microsoft Edge:
    1. Click the three dots (Menu) in the top-right corner.
    2. Click Settings.
    3. Click Cookies and site permissions on the left sidebar.
    4. Click Pop-ups and redirects.
    5. Toggle the switch to "Allowed" or add the specific site to the "Allow" list.
Disable VPN:
- Temporarily disable your VPN connection.
- Why? The VPN can interfere with the captive portal's redirection process.
- How? Disconnect from your VPN application. You may need to fully quit the VPN application to ensure it's disabled.

After Disabling Pop-Up Blocker and VPN:

Disconnect from the Wi-Fi network you're trying to connect to.
Reconnect to the Wi-Fi network.
The captive portal should now appear automatically in your browser.

If the Captive Portal Still Doesn't Appear:

Clear your browser's cache and cookies.
Use an alternate browser to see if the issue is browser-specific.
If you're still unable to access the captive portal, please contact us for further assistance, as we need to register the member's device MAC address for a quicker connection bypassing our captive portal.