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WiFi public hotspot - unable to reach "redirection" page

Started by warpcafe, 2011.05.03, 11:30:21

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warpcafe

Hi all,

I have a strange behaviour here:
I am using eCS 2.0 GA with Firefox, GenMac and XWLAN things "out of the box".
There is a public hotspot available and XWLAN perfectly identifies and connects to it.

Now, what usually should happen is that whenever I try to access any URL in Firefox without being "logged-in" to the provider's pay-as-you-go thing, the WiFi router redirects me to a page where I have to enter my UID and PW. Once done, I can access any URL on the internet.

What actually happens is:
- I enter a URL
- I see from the Firefox status line that I am redirected to the "login" page of the WiFi router
- I wait forever in "connecting to <login-site>

Needless to say that -sigh- it works without any issues when using the evil OS from Redmond or Ubuntu.
There must be something "different" in the way how eCS is setting up routes (?) or DNS or whatever.
"Ping router" from xwlan works BTW.

I am not perfectly sure if the issue is related to eCS networking, XWLAN or perhaps Firefox.
I SUPPOSE it can be related to resolving names and/or overriding/including IP addresses from the "hosts" file.
But again - no clue here.

Anyone around who can give me some clue... or who perhaps has experienced/solved the same kind of issue?

Thanks in advance, kind regards,
Thomas
"It is not worth an intelligent man's time to be in the majority.
By definition, there are already enough people to do that"
- G.H. Hardy

melf

Hi Thomas,
I experience a similar problem on my works wifi-net, which I connect to via a xwlan profile. For me it is solved by closing FF, reconfigure (or turn off and on) the tcp/ip interface , then start FF again and enter an URL. Then it'll work all day long. However if I wait too long, let's say some minutes before entering the url, then I have to do the procedure again. Strange!
/Mikael

warpcafe

Hi melf,

out of curiosity: Have you tried using a different browser than FFx?
For instance WebExplorer, Netscape or one of the Qt-Things just for ruling out that it's a Firefox issue?

Cheers,
Thomas
"It is not worth an intelligent man's time to be in the majority.
By definition, there are already enough people to do that"
- G.H. Hardy

melf

No I haven't, but that's a good idea. I'll try it next time I'm there.
/Mikael

RobertM

I *believe* this is due to a custom DNS redirection which is supposed to handle the login page (or all web traffic attempts). There's something else about this problem I saw elsewhere in the last few months... sorry my memory is hazy...



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Kirk's 5 Year Mission Continues at:
Star Trek New Voyages
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Blonde Guy

I stayed at a Red Roof motel in Bowling Green, KY last week, and I had the same problem. I didn't try with a different OS, but I did try rebooting, I tried the Arora browser. Nothing would make the basic Google.com website, or any other commercial website, come up. It just kept trying.

Oddly, I could display my own website, http://www.blondeguy.com

Also, I could telnet, ftp and use an e-mail client. But no web-surfing, except for the Blonde Guy website.

On the same trip, I several times encountered the new WiFi problem.

"Do you have WiFi?"
"Yes, the password is 1234567890"

I tried everything, and each time, the answer was that it was a WEP 64 key. It's like WEP 64 is the new standard, at least in Kentucky, USA.
Expert Consulting for OS/2 and eComStation

RobertM

Quote from: Blonde Guy on 2011.05.05, 05:54:35
On the same trip, I several times encountered the new WiFi problem.

"Do you have WiFi?"
"Yes, the password is 1234567890"

I tried everything, and each time, the answer was that it was a WEP 64 key. It's like WEP 64 is the new standard, at least in Kentucky, USA.

I've seen this on virtually every OS. When my phone connects to something with a protocol it doesnt properly support, it'll simply not communicate. Had that same problem setting up a customer's iPhone with their work router... apparently it didnt like the CaSe of the WPA key... i forget whether it was all upper case or all lower case that resolved that. I've seen Windows systems that connect, think they are connected, then do nothing... or simply keep trying to re-authenticate repeatedly. Vista (when it first came out) was the worst with that, and various routers (forget which brand) needed firmware updates to resolve it.


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Kirk's 5 Year Mission Continues at:
Star Trek New Voyages
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warpcafe

Hi folks,

thanks for youor inputs. In the meantime I have successfully connected to different access points without changing anything in the setup. Yet, for the hotspot in question the problem remains. I also belive it's due to some DNS crap and perhaps can be solved by putting in some "different" domain name for the machine's settings... no idea.
@BlondeGuy: Neil, could it be that you were able to access your site because your machine still had "blondeguy.com" set as the domain name?

I also can confirm that the browser is not the culprit here. Also, OpenSuse showed a similar behaviour when it waited for ages until the page appeared. At least it appeared then. With regards to WEP keys: I noticed that I frequently forget to put "0x" in front of a hex-valued key... ;)

At least I appear not to be the only one who experienced this... ;) Thanks!
Cheers,
Thomas
"It is not worth an intelligent man's time to be in the majority.
By definition, there are already enough people to do that"
- G.H. Hardy