Can I disable annoying wifi login dialogs without turning off wifi?

Question

Level 1

74 points

Can I disable annoying wifi login dialogs without turning off wifi?

When walking around with my iPhone, I constantly get these dialogs interrupting what I'm doing.

It seems I'm doomed to endure this for absolutely no good reason. Here's why I think so. Please help prove me wrong!

I don't want to turn off wifi. I need this for locations to work correctly, especially here in Thailand.
In my Wi-Fi settings, I have selected "Ask to Join Networks." I don't want to disable this, because my phone then automatically join open networks like ".@ TRUEWIFI" which incur a fee here with my phone provider.

I want an option that will use wifi for locations and join networks that I have saved, like at home, but which do not pop up this dialog. In other words, a setting that basically clicks "Cancel" every time on this dialog.

Is this possible?

Thank you

iPhone 7 Plus, iOS 11.0.3

Posted on Nov 22, 2017 8:52 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Best reply

Drew Reece

Level 6

10,660 points

Dec 5, 2017 10:47 AM in response to wealthychef

I'm afraid I cannot remember the last time I used an open Wi-Fi network, or saw one.

Apple has this explanation on how Wi-Fi is used…

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202831

That says it will connect to an open Wi-Fi network if no other one is available. I do not understand how you could be charged by the network owner for this but it seems like you really need to turn Wi-Fi off to avoid the charges.

On iOS 11 you have to do that in the settings app - the notification centre switch does not turn Wi-Fi off it only disconnects from the current network…

http://osxdaily.com/2017/10/04/how-disable-wifi-bluetooth-ios-11/

It seems like you'll have to post feedback to Apple to ask to have this feature changed - an option to 'never join open networks' seems appropriate.

https://ssl.apple.com/feedback/

Reply

Answer 2

Drew Reece

Level 6

10,660 points

Dec 5, 2017 1:48 AM in response to wealthychef

Those dialogs occur because you have 'Ask to join networks' enabled. Turn that off & you will not see these dialogs anymore.

As for automatically joining the '.@ TRUEWIFI' network - your iPhone ONLY joins network that you have used previously (remembered networks). The answer is to get in range of a '.@ TRUEWIFI' network & then select the option to 'forget this network' that should stop the iPhone connecting to it. Another option is to totally reset all network settings - that will erase ALL remembered networks. Your phone should only join ones you specifically choose.

The reset option is 'Settings app > General > Reset > Reset Network settings'.

If you read the text under the 'Ask to join networks' toggle it tries to explain how it will behave, toggle it & read the text - it changes based on the state of the switch.

wealthychef wrote:

I want an option that will use wifi for locations and join networks that I have saved, like at home, but which do not pop up this dialog. In other words, a setting that basically clicks "Cancel" every time on this dialog.

My device has always worked like you describe because I disabled this 'Ask to join networks' setting.

Reply

Answer 3

wealthychef Author

Level 1

74 points

Dec 5, 2017 2:03 AM in response to Drew Reece

This sounds very promising. But to be clear, these networks are open networks with no password. Are you saying that if they have never been explicitly joined, they will not be joined even with "Ask to join networks" turned off? That would be great! Under the "ask to join networks" setting it says "Known networks will be joined automatically. If no known networks are available, you will be asked before joining a new network." It just does not say what the "off" position means.

I will try your suggestion. What has happened in the past is that these open networks were automatically joined, and I got charged for their usage.

Reply

Answer 4

wealthychef Author

Level 1

74 points

Dec 5, 2017 5:23 PM in response to Drew Reece

That fits with my experience and explains a lot. Very much *****. I don't understand why I can be charged for this as well, but this is Thailand. :-) Things are not always reasonable here. I'm sure they will say "we are not forcing you to connect to us, you did that voluntarily, and the charges are made clear (in Thai) in your terms of service."

Reply

Answer 5

wealthychef Author

Level 1

74 points

Dec 5, 2017 5:31 PM in response to Drew Reece

What I'm going to do is follow panchososa694's suggestion for a while and check my known networks, after purging all that start with "@". If I start seeing "@" networks that I did not explicitly join, I'll talk to my provider about whether I'm being charged for them. Total PITA eh. But this is such an edge case, no pun intended, I don't think any support team will really know what i'm talking about. I will also enter it as a feature request.

Reply

Answer 6

wealthychef Author

Level 1

74 points

Dec 4, 2017 8:54 PM in response to wealthychef

I'm amazed that I'm either the only person having this problem or nobody has any comment or solution to it... sigh. Maybe because I posted near Thanksgiving. :-)

Reply

Answer 7

Dec 4, 2017 10:14 PM in response to wealthychef

No, what you want is not possible in iOS.

Reply