Unbreakable VPN Connection to Connect to McDonalds Wi-Fi by Combining Multiple Internet Sources with Speedify
Tell me, did this ever happen to you?
You’re at McDonald’s enjoying your Happy Meal (or maybe that’s just me). You open your laptop to get some work done, select the WiFi network, and… nothing happens. Your WiFi icon is showing it’s connected, but when you go to open your browser nothing loads. The McDonald’s WiFi login page never shows up.
Get connected with Speedify: it delivers an unbreakable VPN connection by intelligently bonding multiple internet sources, ensuring continuous uptime and encrypted protection.
Why Speedify's VPN Tunnel is Unbreakable vs Other VPNs
Most VPNs stop working the moment one of your internet connections has a problem. If your Wi-Fi glitches, or your device briefly switches between 4G / 5G and Starlink, you can suddenly lose your VPN connection.
Speedify is built to prevent that. Instead of relying on just one connection, Speedify can use all your available internet connections at the same time: Wi-Fi, Ethernet, 4G / 5G cellular, even Starlink or other satellite. If one connection slows down or drops, Speedify instantly moves your traffic to another internet source so your VPN stays connected and your online activity isn’t interrupted.
In this video, you’ll see how Speedify keeps your internet connection secure, smooth, and reliable by intelligently spreading your encrypted data across the available connections. The result: an unbreakable VPN tunnel.
Combining multiple internet sources like WiFi, 4G, 5G, & Starlink together makes Speedify's secure VPN tunnels unbreakable
Combine internet connections for better bandwidth and signal strength
No matter how secure your VPN is, if you experience a drop in your Internet connection, either your VPN tunnel will break leaving you unprotected, or you’ll be stuck offline. Speedify is the only VPN that seamlessly combines all of your connections, including WiFi, 4G, 5G, Ethernet, and Starlink, into one unbreakable connection to keep you online and secure.
Speedify will automatically detect any available Internet connections on your device, encrypting and intelligently distributing your online traffic between them for optimal performance. If you need help we have quick start guides available for most common set ups.
Join multiple mobile personal hotspots at the same time
Speedify's Pair & Share is a feature that enables you to connect to multiple personal hotspots at the same time and wirelessly share LTE, 4G, and 5G cellular connections back and forth between multiple Speedify users on the same local network to create a faster, more reliable connection for everyone.
With Speedify, all of your available internet sources - even shared personal hotspots - are combined inside the secure VPN tunnel with your encrypted traffic intelligently distributed between them, while split tunneling allows blocked sites to bypass. So, if any connection slows down or drops out, the VPN tunnel stays active and the other connections will automatically take over to keep you securely, seamlessly connected.
What Is a Captive Portal? Why Is McDonald’s Using These?
Before we can talk about why you can’t connect to McDonald’s WiFi, we need to talk a bit about captive portals.
Captive portals are web pages that the user of a public network is redirected to once they connect to the WiFi hotspot. They must interact with those before they are able to access the Internet.
You’ve seen this: when you log on to the McDonald’s WiFi hotspot, you see a webpage that requires certain actions before Internet access is granted – accepting the terms and conditions.
So, why can’t you connect to McDonald’s WiFi? It’s hard to know unless you are the one running the captive portal. Sometimes there are breaks with the system but it could be a different reason for different networks. In other cases having your computer set to use a custom DNS server can cause problems with a captive portal. But in most cases the problem is related to the network itself and you as a user can’t do anything about it. If you are using a VPN, chances are the VPN is causing the issue.
That said, there are still things you could try, just don’t get your hopes up too high. Check out our cheat sheet here for some potential fixes.
Can’t Connect to McDonald’s WiFi When Using a VPN – Here’s How to Fix
If you are even a little concerned about your online security and privacy, chances are you are already using a VPN. And if you’re not, you should be, especially if you often connect to public WiFi hotspots. A VPN will encrypt your data and prevent any hackers from stealing your personal and sensitive information like social media passwords, credit card details etc.
However, you may have noticed that you can’t connect to McDonald’s WiFi if you are using the VPN. You will need to disconnect the VPN in order to connect to the WiFi which leaves you vulnerable for hacker attacks.
Why is that? Since the network setup has specific rules about IP address ranges that are acceptable to log in which are assigned by the hotspot / router at McDonald’s, since you are using a VPN to mask your IP address, the login page will see a completely different IP than the one it’s expecting. So, you won’t be able to connect to the Internet at all.
But you can connect to McDonald’s WiFi if you use Speedify bonding VPN.
Use the McDonald’s WiFi with a VPN and Stay Safe Online
When you join the McDonald’s WiFi hotspot while running Speedify, it will:
- Show you a notification asking you if you want to login.
- Keep you connected over cellular data so your other ongoing online activities (like Skype / Slack calls, streaming, gaming) will continue to work via the cellular connection, protected by Speedify so you don’t have to worry about dropped calls or streams.
- If you click the notification prompting you to connect to the McDonald’s WiFi hotspot, Speedify will pop up the login screen in a window.
- Once you login successfully, Speedify will immediately start using the WiFi connection, allowing you to seamlessly switch over from cellular to WiFi without stopping any of the things you are doing online.
Speedify uses channel bonding technology in order to bond multiple Internet connections at once. In the example above, it uses both WiFi and cellular connections on your smartphone or laptop.
Now you can finally connect to any public WiFi hotspot and not worry about your data and privacy.
Get started today!
With Speedify you can combine multiple internet sources into one bonded super-connection to improve livestreaming, video calling, gaming, web browsing, and everything else you do online.
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Alex and the Speedify team are always exploring the latest in networking and security technology—like 5G, 6G, WiFi 7, laser and satellite internet—and sharing it in new discussion content across YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, and LinkedIn every week.
Got a tech question? Let's go deeper! Pop into Speedify Office Hours live every Wednesday at 10 AM Eastern. Speedify CEO Alex Gizis and our network engineers are standing by to break down your questions about networks, tech updates, and Speedify features.
