why won't my wifi work outside of my house?

A big fail for Apple here in addressing this issue. I constantly encounter issues when attempting to interconnect with Starbucks, my community collegel and other commercial establishments. This is not rocket science for the folks at Apple and it detracts immensely from the user friendliness perception that Apple's products have.

I'm on a couple of strings here and no response to these issues. Since I own all Apple products and often encounter different interconnection issues, I'm wondering why there are no solutions offfered. Next is an example of a total waste of time that I (and probably others) incur when attempting to use otherwise incredible products!

Upon recognizing the network (either automatically or by choosing a network) Starbucks for example, once and if the sign in screen (accepting the network's conditions) appears it mostly fails to fully load. This leaves the user in a Twilight Zone state. IT IS AN INCREDIBLE WASTE OF TIME! because it occurrs repeatedly! I purchase Apple products because I prefer to have something work rather than wasting my time tinkering with an issues that is plainly not something I created.

There has to be a fix for this. Clearing out a cache or something, but I'm astounded how often this occurs! WTH Apple! Why can't someone address this!

Can't confirm.

What is not confirmable?

Cannot replicate your issue...

What browser are you using? (and have you tried other ones?)

Does this happen on every wifi connection you try? (public and private ones)

What about ethernet?

How is your internet performance on the wired connection?

Thank you for replying. I can use either Chrome, Safari, or Firefox - but I get the same result - which is a mixed bag at best. I've had this issue with Apple products for a series of Macbooks - have lost count on how many I've owned.

Of course there is no problem with open, non commercial wifi, or even passworded wifi nor my Apple Airport products and most other brands.

It only seems to occur when I use one such a Fred Meyer (Kroger), Starbucks and my community college, where I'm hoping to be presented with a sign in screen - to either accept terms or to enter a username or password. Many times, at places such as Starbucks, I can't get the screen to appear.

My ethernet works fine, no problems joining a network, either at the university I attend or through a router at home. And the performance seems fine - I've not clocked it, but I am satisfied with the connection speed, so never thought to test the speed.

Have you considered that the public access systems may not be configured correctly/overloaded/broken?

Talk to the admins/managers of the public networks, see what they have to say about it.

Hey I appreciate that suggestion. I guess I can try Starbucks. The community college is Windows-centric and not at all receptive to assistance for Macs. And I'd guess that it isn't that much of a problem with too many people - not my luck on this one. I appreciate the consideration.

Iv'e had two MBPs since early 2008. The first, a non-unibody Late 2007 model, did experience what appeared to be some antenna issues that could have been software-related. In areas with weak signals, mine and othersl had difficulty connecting from the Mac side but, if one were running Windows via BootCamp, they connected fine. That was when OS 10.5 was the lastest and greatest.

After 10.6 came out, we had fewer if any difficulties.

When the old MBP shuffled off this mortal coil last year, I replaced it with the the one in my profile below. I've not experienced any difficulties connecting or stating connected to public networks with that MBP.

Can you share with us which MBP variant you have and the OS version?

Confirm you are not using any extentions in Safari that can block the sign on window, also check you have deselected the 'Block Pop up Windows'in the security preferences in Safari, some sign in screens use pop ups.

Also check if the community college requires Java, hopefully not, but worth asking.