Computer can connect to an open SSID, but not establish an internet connection

John Galt wrote:

If your Mac doesn't connect to the Internet over Wi-Fi ...

See if that comes up with anything useful.

The purpose of captive.apple.com is to tell Safari you're using a Captive Network, something that iOS has been able to accomplish for years while macOS's ability improved only recently. It doesn't appear to be the problem in your case. If Safari is connected only the single word Success will appear.

Actually, that IS what happens, but that's ALL that happens. Is the side-trip to an apple server supposed to somehow compel Safari to cough up the acknowledgement dialog?

I'll read your suggested article. Thanks so much for that.

By the way, since I have your attention, perhaps you can help me understand the User Communities interface a bit better. I tried to post a link to a web article discussing captive.apple.com written by Glenn Fleishman for Macworld online Clicking the "link" icon in the toolbar below the text entry window creates a space in the toolbar to enter the character string of the URL, but once that's finished it's entirely opaque to me what I'm supposed to do next. I tried clicking "post," which of course merely sent my message to the User Communities without the URL I'd entered. Is there an FAQ page for the user support communities that might address this?

I'm now on the network where I need to restart in order to obtain an internet connection. I typed captive.apple.com in the browser address bar and still get the "you're not on the internet" blank page, but if I reboot, I can connect.

Again, my laptop "sees" the local SSID and seems to connect to it (filled in Menu Bar chevron), but I need to reboot to establish the internet connection.

I was not clear why or how entering captive.apple.com in the address bar of my Safari browser was supposed to help, but it didn't.

Thanks so much,

Jim Robertson

John Galt wrote:

Here are a few fundamental troubleshooting steps that may help. Some of the information will be redundant but review everything to determine if there is something you may have overlooked.

Thanks for your suggestions, but my issue is quite limited and specific. For as long as I've owned my current (and perhaps even earlier) MacBook Pro(s) I've encountered occasional open WiFi networks where the laptop can SEE (and mate to) its SSID but not complete connection to the internet. For the particular network where this has happened repetitively, recently, acknowledging the network provider's conditions of usage in a browser dialog has been required, but Safari doesn't post that dialog to the screen unless I restart the Mac before trying to reach the SSID in question.

I don't know whether every open network I try to reach produces the same obstacles, but I think not. When I was working, I needed to access at least a half-dozen secured WiFi networks, and (once I configured my username and PW), I never had such difficulties with those transitions from my home or my own work WiFi networks.

And, the routine of rebooting the Mac in order to make Safari "cough up" the acknowledgement dialog that seems to be the "price of admission" for internet access doesn't complicate my computer's ability to locate and connect to my own or other secured SSIDs for which I have stored credentials.

As I've noted in an earlier thread message, I thought perhaps John Galt was on to something with his suggestion that I type "captive.apple.com" in the address bar, given that he said so doing addressed a longstanding problem with macOS and open networks, but that didn't help, and of course I don't know any reason why a side trip to an Apple domain server would facilitate a trip to a local hospital's WiFi network. Still, John may be on to the reason for the problem, and one of Macworld's editors, Glenn Fleishman, describes the issue in a manner even I can understand:

And, to address dot.com's question, yes, my WiFi IPv4 configuration is set to "automatic."

Sorry, when I attempted to add a link to Glenn Fleishman's article by using the "link insertion" icon in the toolbar window below the composition area, the interface posted my response without the link. Here it is

<https://www.macworld.com/article/3241896/can-you-free-yourself-from-captiveapplecom.html>

There are other articles retrieved by the same web search, and Glenn's Article suggests that iOS devices may be bedeviled by the same "trick" used by the host WiFi network provider to compel users to acknowledge usage conditions. In my case, my iOS devices don't have the same issue with the network in question, perhaps because the iOS network interface engineers are "smarter" than the macOS network engineers (to borrow from an ancient Julian Bond SNL skit about IQ tests). I have no idea, but I'll read some more and see if I come up with something useful. If so, I'll post another response here, but my next encounter with the open SSID in question won't be for at least another two weeks.

Thanks to all for your suggestions.

John Galt wrote:

The captive.apple.com URL is an attempt to force Safari into loading a captive network that would otherwise result in a “can’t connect to server” message. I think it’s a dead end in your circumstance, and as I wrote I have reason to believe Apple solved macOS Safari’s problems with captive networks a while ago.

To post text containing a clickable URL, select the text, use the “link” icon to paste the actual URL, then (important) hit the Return key to complete its entry. It’s not exactly intuitive.

I think I may have stumbled into a solution.

I had my Network>WiFi pane in System Preferences set to "join this network automatically," and, at least at the hardware layer, that is what was happening. My laptop and the hospital network established a connection, but my Safari browser didn't open a non-modal dialog asking me to acknowledge the hospital's network managers' terms for using that connection for internet access, and somehow, rebooting the Mac somehow caused Safari to do so.

I spent this weekend visiting my son in another community. His home network, like mine is encrypted and requires a WPA2 PW provided to me by him in order to obtain a connection to the SSID, but my laptop and my iOS devices provide those when I arrive at his house. However, the network at my hotel (New hotel with 802.11ac 5g available to guests) is open, with a requirement that guests put their room number and last name into a non-modal dialog to obtain network access. Although I've used that network many times during previous visits, it too requires me to reboot in order to see that dialog via my Safari browser. So, while connected to the hotel's network yesterday, I toggled "join this network automatically" to "off" in System Prefs, then used my son's network at his house. When I came back to the hotel, my laptop did not auto-select the hotel's SSID, but when I did so manually, the result was both joining the SSID and internet access from Safari and my email app!

I'll see if I get the same result the next time I use the open network in the hospital near home.

I used to have a Windows VM on this computer, and I guess it would be interesting to see if using it obviates the issue, but I no longer use that. I can test with another browser not developed primarily with the Mac in mind (I have Chrome and the Opera browser. Because I cannot demonstrate the problem unless I disconnect from the open network and then connect to a secured network before returning to the open network, I won't be able to do such testing until the next time I'm asked to connect to the open network near home.

Jim Robertson