Joining Panera Bread WiFi (or other free areas)

Weird. Mine works fine when I go to Panera. It even joins the network without asking me (I have that feature turned on, but it doesn't always work. But it works flawlessly in Panera).

Perhaps it has something to do with your local Panera and how they set up their network.

Or is this happening anyplace that requires a login? My Panera doesn't require a log in.

OSU-Mac

I had the same problem with Panera. I believe the problem is that before Panera will let you actually get to the Internet you must accept their terms (as usual) but with the iPhone, you can't easily get to their page because it is not currently cashed in your iPhone. Here is the solution that worked for me:
1) Go into settings and Wi-Fi and turn Wi-Fi off. (this forces Edge into action)

2) Go to www.Panerabread.com (using Edge) and close all other open windows but that one on your iPhone.

3) Now go back into your settings and reactivate your Wi-Fi.

4) It should ask you if your want to join the Panera network (of course say "yes")

5) Last, refresh the Panara web page and you should be able to answer "yes" to their terms and then connected to the Internet.

-Go Bucks!-

PowerPC G5 Dual 2 Ghz / MBP 2.16 Ghz Core Duo Mac OS X (10.4.10)

Yes, that is what you need to do with a "login" type free wiFi. Also, the first time you hook up it will work, but some wifis have a timeout. If it times out, the login screen will never appear again. Shut off wiFi, go to edge, bring up any web page, then turn WiFi back on and it should come up correctly to allow you to login.

Weird!

I have a similar problem but it's not limited to Panera Bread. When I am at public spots requiring a web log-in, I sometimes do not get the log-in page. I understand that turning WiFi off temporarily and accessing the page through Edge would work in many situations, but what if you don't know the site's URL?

What's the easiest way of forcing my iPhone to get to the necessary log-in page if I don't know the URL?

Thanks!

Did you try what's posted in this thread?

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=4846013&#4846013

I found for my Paneras that manually entering the Search Domain worked.

I was having this exact problem at work. This is what I did (having wifi enabled the whole time):

1. Closed all open pages and opened a new blank page in safari
2. Went into settings, safari, and cleared cache and cookies
3. Went back to safari, tried to open NOAA.gov
4. Was re-directed to "login" page for the public wifi

This seems to work consistently, although I am not sure why. Hope it works for you too.

That makes sense. By going to just about any page, it will have to default back to the host log-in. Brilliant in its simplicity!

thanks