Unbreakable VPN Connection for Airport Wi-Fi: Combine Wi-Fi and 4G / 5G Cellular with Speedify
A layover is the worst time to be locked out of the internet. Airport Wi-Fi almost always sits behind a captive portal – the sign-in page the airport network makes you accept first – and most VPNs cannot display that page, so you browse unprotected or not at all.
Speedify is an app that encrypts your internet traffic and runs it over the airport Wi-Fi and your phone’s 4G/5G cellular data at the same time.
Below you will find why airports use these sign-in pages and what using Speedify gives you: the page opens, and your uploads and downloads keep moving on the phone’s cellular data when airport Wi-Fi sags.
Airport Captive Portal – Why It’s There
You probably now know that some airport internet access requires you to sign in or agree to a specific page in order to access the internet. That’s called a captive portal. It’s a web page which is displayed to newly connected users before they are granted broader access to network resources. The reason for that is either to make the users log in with their credentials or accept some terms and conditions.
With that said, is it really free? Am I safe? Captive portals are to blame for a number of security issues, especially when it comes to HTTPS websites. HTTPS is meant to prevent traffic interception, alteration, and impersonation by a third party. But captive portals work by doing exactly that: they intercept and alter the connection between the user and the site they are trying to visit. On an unencrypted HTTP connection, the user would not even notice this. But for sites secured with HTTPS, the web browser detects something or someone hijacking the connection (similar to a man-in-the-middle attack). This causes “untrusted connection” warnings about fake certificates for websites that users otherwise expect to be safe.
How to Stay Safe on the Airport Wi-Fi Network Using a Captive Portal
You can create a safe environment for your devices when connected to a free airport hotspot connection. All there is to do is use a VPN on your device.
A virtual private network (VPN) extends a private network across a public network. It enables users to send and receive data across shared or public networks as if their computing devices were directly connected to the private network. Applications running across a VPN therefore benefit from the functionality, security, and management of the private network.
The problem with VPNs and captive portals is they are almost incompatible. And that’s because of the way they work. When running a VPN while connecting to a network with a captive portal, the captive portal will not see the local IP address it expects to see. Instead, it will detect an external IP – the one of the VPN’s server. And this makes the captive portal not display or not work correctly.
To fix that you can either disconnect the VPN while you connect through the captive portal. Or not use the VPN at all. But that will make you vulnerable to cyber threats. In the end, don’t sweat it – Speedify is a bonding VPN that can protect you on any captive portal powered network.
Here’s how Speedify works with captive portals: whenever it detects one, Speedify separates the local traffic to the captive portal. It does this while keeping you connected to the Internet and secure via cellular or another connection that’s available to you. So you will be able to log in / accept the terms without any issues. Once that’s done and you’re granted access to the Wi-Fi’s Internet, Speedify will protect and optimize all your traffic.
Use Speedify on any Airport Captive Portal
Speedify is the only VPN app that can help you combine multiple internet connections (Wi-Fi, 4G, 5G, Ethernet, Starlink, Satellite and more) to improve the stability, speed and security of your online experiences. Moreover, Speedify handles captive portals better than any other VPN:
- when it detects a captive portal, it automatically moves the traffic to and from the captive portal login page outside of the encrypted VPN tunnel
- once you successfully log onto the network, Speedify moves that direct traffic back to the VPN tunnel
- you can always use the split tunneling feature (Bypass) for specific services – this will put traffic to and from those outside of the bonded VPN tunnel.
When you use Speedify, you no longer have to choose between security, speed and stability. Speedify actually helps you have a better Internet experience in airports when you stream movies, have business conference calls, or even play online video games.
With Speedify VPN, you never have to worry about your Internet connection dropping. It keeps you connected automatically, even if something goes wrong with one of your connections.
Stop taking chances with your online security and get a secure, stable and fast Internet connection with the fastest VPN out there.
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