Do you travel? Do you use a public Wi-Fi networks? You probably heard of captive portals. Most free hotspots use a captive portal to interact with the users. Technically speaking, it is a restricted network connection in which all client HTTP requests are redirected to a web page set up by the provider. It can then prompt users to agree to the operator’s terms and conditions, enter payment information, or enter credentials to verify prior payment arrangements.

But sometimes your Apple device doesn’t work correctly with such portals. They are not detected, which means that you can’t interact with them. Ultimately, that’s no internet for you, as you cannot log onto the network.

Read below how you can fix this while being safe on any Wi-Fi or wired network.

Going into further detail, here’s what happens when you connect to a Wi-Fi hotspot that runs a captive portal:

1. The router powering the hotspot assigns you a local IP address.
2. It then routes you to a locally accessible “website” – the actual captive portal.
3. The captive portal verifies that the IP accessing it is a local IP provided by the router.
4. When the action on the captive portal is performed – authentication, acceptance of terms and conditions, etc. – you gain access to the Internet.

When running a VPN while connecting to an Apple captive portal, the captive portal will not see the local IP address. Instead, it will see 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.

If you’re away, sometimes there’s no other option but to connect to an open or public Wi-Fi. It’s important you never let your guard down! A free wifi is a hacker’s dream! This is the time where you need a VPN, because prevention is always better than cure.

Macs come in with good security measures by default. Apple got all the bells and whistles that you can use to improve your security over the internet and most especially on a captive portal network:

• Set up FileVault: Want to start fresh or give your Mac to someone else? FileVault 2 makes it easy to clean data off your Mac.
• Secure your iCloud: macOS and iCloud can help keep your Mac safe even when you misplace it. Sign in to iCloud.com from another computer or use the Find My iPhone app on an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch to locate your missing Mac on a map.
• Tired of forgetting long passwords? Set up iCloud Keychain! When you visit a website, iCloud Keychain will fill in your login information to give you access to your online accounts. It can also auto-fill your credit card information when you’re checking out online.
• Always use a secure connection. If public internet is the only option, never connect to it unless your connection is encrypted with a VPN!

You shouldn’t use just any kind of VPN! Check out the encryption method and level.

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.

You will be protected from compromised WiFi networks. Speedify also keeps your data safe from prying eyes of hackers, ISPs, and even the hosts of the network. No more ISP throttling for certain platforms!

Speedify offers a free trial so you can test drive the service before paying for it. You get 1 GB of data each month. Speedify also supports Mac and an individual subscription works on up to 5 devices. 

Get Speedify on all major platforms: Windows, macOS, iOS, Android and Linux. Time to put Apple captive portal issues and Internet threats to rest by using Speedify.