A captive portal (also known as Wi-Fi login page) allows network administrators to block Internet access for users until they complete a defined process. When using a public Wi-Fi with a captive portal, you are required to accept some Terms and Conditions or log in before accessing the Internet.

If you’re connecting to the Internet from airports, train stations, buses or other public places, chances are you are familiar with captive portals. It’s that splash screen is usually being brought up for you before connecting to the Internet.

Speedify delivers an unbreakable VPN connection by intelligently bonding multiple internet sources, ensuring continuous uptime and encrypted protection.

When you’re out and there’s a free WiFi, you can always connect to it. But, as you know, using public Wi-Fi can be a risky thing, especially if you’re doing business activities on it. When a public Wi-Fi uses a captive portal (a “login” page), the security risks you’re exposed to can be higher. That’s because captive portals don’t work seamlessly with VPNs. You always have to disconnect your VPN, access the Wi-Fi login page and then turn on your VPN again. Leaving aside the manual steps you have to do, whenever the VPN is off while you’re connected to public Wi-Fi, you may be exposed to:

• Malware installation – a hacker can inject a code snippet in your device to infect it with malware. From criminals wanting to intercept your data to malware generators that can install anything from a keylogger to ransomware in your device, there are several risks on these free networks.
• Man-in-the-middle (MITM) attack – the hacker sits between the user and the server and reads everything that’s being transmitted. This is like eavesdropping where a third person can see all your activities without you knowing about his presence.
• Snooping / sniffing – again, a hacker can eavesdrop on your connection. However, it’s different than an MITM attack since the attacker doesn’t sit in the middle. Instead, they use special devices and software to snoop on the conversation.
• Malicious Wi-Fi networks – while there are chances that a hacker might have hacked the Wi-Fi of your local café, there can also be instances that Wi-Fi is set up by a hacker. These honeypot Wi-Fi connections are generally named similar to local cafés or airports so unsuspecting customers will connect to them.

The best way to keep your information safe while accessing a public Wi-Fi is by using a VPN. A VPN encrypts your data so if there is someone monitoring the network, they won’t be able to read the information you’re sending.

Here are a number of ways in which you can minimize public Wi-Fi security risks.

• Use a VPN
• Don’t allow your device to auto-connect to open Wi-Fi networks
• Don’t access http websites. Only access https websites as they are more secure
• Log out of all account once you’re done using them

As discussed earlier, the best way to stay safe on public Wi-Fi is to use a VPN so your traffic gets encrypted. However, there are two problems with most VPNs:

• they have to be disconnected while accessing the captive portals (Wi-Fi login pages), otherwise those won’t work.
• most VPNs make the connection slower. And since public Wi-Fi networks are generally pretty slow, using a VPN with them becomes difficult.

Speedify is unlike other VPNs. It is a bonding VPN that uses channel bonding technology to combine multiple Internet connections at once. This means that instead of slowing down your connection, as other VPNs do, it will make it faster and more reliable.

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.

Apart from the channel bonding services, Speedify also encrypts your data and redirects it through one of its speed servers so you stay secure and anonymous online.

Want to use a VPN on public Wi-Fi with captive portals, but need to be 100% protected against security risks and slow speeds? Get Speedify!