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Apple Devices use 3G in wifi Pre-auth state

Hello!


I'm trying to integrate with a 3rd party guest wifi provider using my Meraki hardware. The problem I am having is that the "splash page" which is pulled down from the internet is taking a very long time to load on apple devices (I've been testing with iphone 6 and iphone 5s running the latest IOS).


I understand that when connecting to WiFi the apple devices check to see if a certain number of domains are accessible to determine if the wifi connection provides internet access. If these are not reachable, the device presents the IOS popup and throws a http request out there which in this instance gets redirected to the login page configured on the Meraki.


At some of my sites, this works fine and the login process works fine. However what I've noticed is that if the handset has poor 3g reception loading this splash page takes a very long time. (Also the WiFi symbol on the handset reverts back to GPRS which the auth takes place). If I add the below domains to be permitted out in a pre auth state, then two things happen. 1. I no longer get the IOS popup (I assume this is because the phone believes it is online) 2. When I open safari and browse I get redirected to the splash page and can login with no problems. The pages load quickly.


*.apple.com

*.airport.us

*.thinkdifferent.us

*.itools.info

*.ibook.info

*.appleiphonecell.com


While this works as a workaround, it's not really the journey I users would expect to take. Users may also incorrectly believe they are online and their apps will not work in the background. I don't have any problems on windows devices or Android.


So I suppose my question is, could somebody explain to me what triggers the Popup when connecting to an SSID gated by a login process and why in this instance is the device trying to download the splash page using its 3G connection?


(my suspicion is that it has something to do with RFC 1918 addresses, If the splash page is hosted on a private address range then perhaps the wifi will be used but if (as is the case here) the splash page is publicly hosted, then it uses 3G. . . but this is purely speculation on my behalf).


Any insight would be great!


Thanks for taking the time to read this.


Zak

Posted on Mar 3, 2015 3:10 AM

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Apple Devices use 3G in wifi Pre-auth state

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