I returned from a trip to find a window open on my Apple computer. It says "http://captive.apple.com/hotspot-detect.html" at the bottom. In the center of the window is says "success". I've never seen this window before. What is it?
MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6)
The page you are seeing is to check and see if you are on a valid wifi connection. When you connect to a wifi network that you need to accept the terms and conditions for, Apple tells the network to redirect to this link. This tells your Mac that you have successfully gained access to the network, and to let the user go online.
Possibly just a test page by Apple from your trip if you were using a public Wi-Fi such as a hotel.
Restart your Mac. If it reappears, go to Safari > Preferences > Privacy then click Details then remove all Apple cookies, then quit and relaunch Safari.
I have suddenly begun to get these pop-ups on my 27 inch iMac, which doesn't move -- but I do have a Linksys Wi-Fi router which has a "Guest Network" requiring a guest to login.
The answer is -- it is an undocumented "feature" in OSX.
"A captive portal is a network that forces an HTTP client to see a special web page (usually for authentication purposes) before using the Internet normally. A captive portal turns a Web browser into an authentication device. These are commonly used on wifi networks where authentication to the private network is done via a login browser page, rather than via the use of a WEP or WPA2 key, for example in some coffee shops and airports, and hotspot providers such as The Cloud and ATT-Wifi.
On Apple devices, if a captive portal is identified, a special application in /System/Library/CoreServices called Captive Network Assistant.app is opened. This is a very limited browser, separate to Safari, with no address bar or navigation buttons. . . "
And: https://www.reddit.com/r/applehelp/comments/3dc6jv/strange_popup_every_5_minutes _regarding_my_wifi/
Having the same problem on my MacBook Air, pops up every time I connect to my home wifi... Did anyone figure out the problem?
What is captive.apple.com/hotspot-detect.html
