MacBook Pro does not load captive login page on public Wifi sites

On top of that, if you're finding that the captive portal page does not come up, you can try to browse to HTTP (not HTTPS) sites that will redirect, for example http://example.com/ which should redirect to your captive portal login.

open a browser window and type:

1.1.1.1

in the address bar, and press return.

in most situations like this, using an ALL NUMERIC IP address will be intercepted, and you will get your login page.

in a few rare situations, you may get the CloudFlare** splash page instead.

**CloudFlare is NOT part of the solution, they just have the easiest to remember all-numeric IP address.

The reason attempts at web pages may not work in this situation is that what goes out first is a DNS server request (look up this website to an Internet Phone number), which is blocked because you have not logged on yet, so your actual web page request goes nowhere because your Mac can't determine where to send it. Supplying an All numeric IP address Does go out, because it needs no DNS lookup. That gets intercepted and you get your local login page.

So, I found a solution for this problem. Worked for me at least.

Go to Terminal and run the address resolution protocol after connecting to the public WiFi.

% arp -a

You'll get a list of IPs on the network. Try putting those in the Safari address bar, preferably one with smaller numbers in the third and/or fourth field.

The first one worked for me in my case, have tried this at two airports (SJC & DFW) and worked both times.

? (10.46.0.1) at c4:b2:39:5b:18:8d on en0 ifscope [ethernet]
? (10.46.13.91) at 8:66:98:e7:d6:54 on en0 ifscope [ethernet]
? (10.46.13.119) at 68:fc:ca:cc:e3:d2 on en0 ifscope [ethernet]
? (10.46.14.147) at 98:59:7a:86:7a:9a on en0 ifscope [ethernet]
? (10.46.18.163) at (incomplete) on en0 ifscope [ethernet]
? (10.46.25.26) at (incomplete) on en0 ifscope [ethernet]
? (10.46.26.227) at (incomplete) on en0 ifscope [ethernet]

Some other awnsers suggested to put 1.1.1.1 in address bar and that's not always working because the IP of the login webpage might be different and proper redirects aren't set up for the network.

Hope this helps. Cheers!

OOH, that's interesting!

I have another one to try:

once you get an IP address, put the supplied ROUTER's numeric IP address is the address bar.

ytsim wrote:

I’m back at CLT; same problem.

IP address 10.4.48.77

Router: 10.4.63.254

so enter:

http://10.4.63.254

that Router IP address is shown on

Settings/preferences > Network > Wi-Fi > (advanced) > TCP/IP

...

I have been having this problem on and off for so long. I finally found a solution! Assuming you have successfully gained wifi access on your phone….

1- connect to wifi on phone

2- now on your phone go to: settings > WiFi > click on the “i” for additional info

3- scroll down to “IP address number” and simply copy and paste into MacBook safari.

this brings you to that splash page where you can choose to accept and agree, thereby gaining WiFi access!

do you have

settings/references > network > Wi-Fi > (advanced) > TCP/IP :

configure IPv4: Using DHCP ???

if so, what is Subnet mask?

the numbers you posted are VERY far apart:

• IP address: 10.4.66.221
• Router: 10.4.79.254

typical subnet mask of 255.255.255.0 would NOT allow you to connect, because those IP addresses are not on the same subnet.

Hi everyone,

I have been having this annoying issue with a hotel internet and the only solution was to constantly restart my MacBook. I tried one final solution and this seems to have worked for me. Go to the settings of the wifi to which you are trying to connect. It should show "connected" but the captive.apple.com does not load for you to input the username and password. Under TCP/IP, there is a tab that says DHCP Lease, and to the right of it, there is an option that says "Renew DHCP Lease." When I click on it, and try to connect the wifi again, the captive.apple.com reloads without any issues and connects. Hope this works for you too.

No Proxies, VPN or third-party anti-Virus.

in general the DNS addresses should NOT be the same as your Router address.

You should have an independent outside Domain Name Server, such as the one provided by your ISP, or an open public DNS service. Your Router only knows a handful of recent numbers, and if you don't provide a distinct DNS server address, it won't be able to find much, if anything.

what WiFi status is showing in system preferences > network?

it should respond to 1.1.1.1 in the way I described.

try also:

http://1.1.1.1

if using Chrome, they anything else.

based on that subset mask, the IP address issued are fine. It looks confusing because they are issuing a LOT of local IP addresses. The router has issued a valid IP address to you, and appears to have offered you a connection.

Do you have any Proxies active? have you installed any VPN software? do you have a third-party anti-Virus running? any of those can much up making the initial connection.c

It's an slightly oddly configured network though...usually the router would use the first available IP address of 10.4.48.1, not the last usable one at 10.4.63.254. And the addresses previously posted are from the next adjacent /20 block, with a different router. It's not technically wrong...but it is weird.

The DNS are ATT and then Google - again, not wrong, but usually network operators use either ISP DNS, or public DNS, not a mix...

I suppose anyone at CLT could try putting the airport address itself into their browser - https://www.cltairport.com/ - always possible that will bypass DNS lookup if the network operators have cltairport.com set as a search domain for the local resolver by DHCP...

Removing DNS addresses worked in 2023 and still working in 2024. Thanks.