Hotel Wi-Fi- can't get to Wi-Fi log in page

February 2, 2023 7:12 AM

I am travelling for work, staying at a hotel this week. Wi-Fi is free, provided that you log in with your room # and last name. My computer, once I join the hotel Wi-Fi, will pop up the authentication/log in screen, without fail. My iPhone, has decided it is familiar with the hotel Wi-Fi network, will appear to connect but then display a "no connection available" type message just under the Wi-Fi name, and my browser (for instance) won't let me go to any site, and other apps that use Wi-Fi also won't update.

I cannot figure out how to get to the Hotel login site on my phone. Enter the address of the site that pops up on my laptop browser, has not worked.

Hoping for suggestions on how to get the hotel Wi-Fi working on my phone. Thanks in advance

posted by walkinginsunshine to Technology (9 answers total)

First step for the iphone would be to try "forgetting" the wifi network so you can start from the beginning.
posted by muddgirl at 7:23 AM on February 2, 2023 [1 favorite]

Try visiting http://neverssl.com. This is a fairly reliable way of causing the login screen to appear.
posted by caek at 7:24 AM on February 2, 2023 [13 favorites]

Are both your phone and laptop apple products? If I log into a new wifi on my laptop it passes the info (name/password) to my phone so it automatically connects. Its possible your laptop is trying to be too helpful which the hotel wifi doesn't like. Try getting both the laptop and phone to forget the hotel network and try from your phone first with the laptop closed/wifi off)
posted by Captain_Science at 8:45 AM on February 2, 2023 [1 favorite]

Try going to the website of the hotel that you're staying at. That usually works for me.
posted by mezzanayne at 9:02 AM on February 2, 2023 [1 favorite]

Try going to the website of the hotel that you're staying at. That usually works for me.

Seconding this suggestion. I frequent a café where I often have this exact issue, and going to the URL of the café website usually resolves it.

Along the same lines, if you're able to figure out the exact URL of the login landing page via your laptop, try navigating to that URL on your phone.

(Afaik the "share wifi credentials" feature on Apple products only applies when the wifi network is using WPA authentication, not an "open" network with a web login form, which it sounds like is the case here.)
posted by mekily at 9:26 AM on February 2, 2023 [1 favorite]

The http://neverssl.com solution caek posted often works because the wifi is trying to intercept a page to show you the login form instead, but your browser won't trust or show the intercepted page for a secure site which is great for making sure your sites aren't hijacked by evil doers, but not so handy now.
posted by advicepig at 10:40 AM on February 2, 2023 [2 favorites]

sometimes when i try to go to 1.1.1.1 then the login screen appears
posted by alchemist at 11:42 AM on February 2, 2023

I've had this problem too (Apple phone and laptop) and, sometimes forgetting the network on my phone will fix it, but not always. Going to the hotel's web site sometimes works, but not always, I think because lots of hotels have a website that covers many hotels, but each hotel has its own WiFi login page that may or may not be related to the hotel website.

I usually just give up then, because I have a plan with plenty of data available, but the http://neverssl.com solution looks like a useful one and I'll try that next time.
posted by dg at 2:25 PM on February 2, 2023

The "official" site to go to on an Apple device is http://captive.apple.com/hotspot-detect.html. I have no knowledge whether there's any special sauce baked into Safari when it sees that URI but there might be some compared to using neverssl.com.
posted by Candleman at 3:42 PM on February 2, 2023