Solved: Why captive portal won’t connect.

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coryA Author

Level 1

8 points

Solved: Why captive portal won’t connect.

currently on Version 12.3.1 Monterey also tested on Sierra

When connecting to a public wifi that uses captive.portal.com to connect to the portal I got the following message.

”Could not connect”

safari can’t find server

safari can’t open page “https://captive.portal.com” because Safari can’t find the server “captive.portal.com”

Solution 1: Remove all hard coded DNS Servers from (System Preferences—-> Network ——-> Wifi Connection ——> Advanced ——> DNS)

Solution 2: Wipe all cookies and Website data from within the time you got the message.

Solution 3: Disconnect and reconnect to the wifi

Solution 4: Open a safari browser and navigate to the FQDN of the portal.

if it presents success you are now on, if it does not please see solution 1

hope that helps as the last existing thread did not do much for me.

MacBook Pro

Posted on Aug 15, 2022 9:16 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

coryA Author

Level 1

8 points

Aug 15, 2022 9:22 AM in response to coryA

A little history on what name resolution is, it is when a computer translates a number called an IP address to a name.

That is known as Domain Name Service but it referred to as a Domain Name Server (DNS) for short which usually is set to dynamic when completing a connection to a portal.

However static connections have no real domain resolution sitting behind a portal as they go nowhere.

That is why we need dynamic DNS setup which is mentioned in solution 1

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Answer 2

coryA Author

Level 1

8 points

Aug 15, 2022 9:19 AM in response to coryA

When I say FQDN I am stating

fully qualified domain name.

which in our example is:

https://captive.portal.com

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Solved: Why captive portal won’t connect.

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