Have you ever experienced this annoying situation?
You sit at an airport cafe, or a chain coffee store like Starbucks, or even in a hotel lobby while waiting for a conference, you need to connect to the public Wi-Fi. When you choose to connect public Wi-Fi, which has no encrypted password, you click on the connect button, it says you are connected but nothing happens. Your browser still cannot access the internet.
Yes, we know that this situation happens a lot, particularly for people who use co-working spaces or public areas to work. This problem may have many reasons. This could be related to the DNS settings of your device while most prominently it is because of network issues and system errors of the Wi-Fi connection that you are trying to connect.
For the secure connection, we recommend you connect to networks that have special passwords. Like yours at your home. Several hotels and cafes provide the password on their receipt or room cards. But if you must connect a public Wi-Fi Network, you need to take some precautions to secure your connection and privacy.
Because on a public Wi-Fi with unprotected infrastructure by default, everything you enter and share on a non-HTTPS site becomes visible to other parties and this info can be compromised for malicious purposes. The secure network connections with WPA2 code are significantly protected compared to the public networks.
These public networks require you to create an account, connect with your social media page, or enter your mobile number. But sometimes this page cannot pop up on your browser and you feel stuck. Because without this account login page, you cannot really use the public Wi-Fi even your computer says you are connected to it.
But this is not the end of the world. In this article, we both provide solutions for how to force a public Wi-Fi network login page to open and as well as how can you secure your unprotected connection while using public Wi-Fi.
Using VPN for public Wi-Fi networks to force opening their login page
The first and most efficient way for solving these two mentioned problems is using a VPN for public Wi-Fi connection. Using a VPN for Public Wi-Fi is a most rather than just solving login page connection. Since VPNs are specially developed for creating virtual and extra secured layers of the network, this technology will avoid all possible data breach and virus attack problems that can be triggered by unsecured public networks.
For this, you should review the best VPNs on the market and suggest you take a peek at the full details ExpressVPN review to learn more details about how to secure public Wi-Fi connections.
VPNs will enable the connection to a certain network while seamlessly transferring your data through different serves and IP addresses. Using a VPN for free public networks will provide you the privacy that you needed when using a public network. As we mentioned above, most of the information shared and transmitted through public networks are pretty vulnerable to data leak attempts.
Also, thank a secure VPN connection, a seamless session becomes possible if the free Wi-Fi requires hourly logins for you.
There are also short-term quick fixes for this problem, but they may not work every device and definitely not developed for ensuring security.
Other alternatives to force public Wi-Fi network page to open:
These are short term solutions only developed for fixing login problems to free public networks. However, these will not provide any security service for the connection compared to VPN technology.
Change your DNS settings or Turn off Third-Party DNS services
Sometimes certain DNS server providers such as Dyn, Google Public DNS, and others may prevent the default connection to free Wi-Fi connection that does not require any password. If you are currently using any DNS on your device, you can try turning it off.
Try to Use Incognito Mode
Due to the cached DNS info, your browser may not refresh itself and cannot load the login page for the network. Regardless of the browser type, enable incognito mode and try to access a non-HTTPS website. This may force the login page to appear.
Clear the DNS Cache
If your operating system has stored old DNS info, you may have trouble opening the public Wi-Fi login page. To apply DNS resolver cache, type CMD to your start. And when the command prompter window opens, type ‘ipconfig /flushdns’ and press Enter.
Try to Open Router’s Page
For this you need to open your browser and enter the below address to open the router’s default page. It can enable the login page to become visible:
- routerlogin.net,
- http://localhost
- Example.com
- 8.8.8.8
- neverssl.com
- Captive.apple.com
If these are not the solutions for your case, you need to type the IP address of the router manually and click it on the address bar. For this, firstly open the CMD- comment prompt from your start. Type ipconfig and enter. Find the address under the name of IPv4address. Copy this address and paste it in the address bar. This should work for you.
To sum up; what is the best way to open public Wi-Fi networks?
Using a reliable VPN such as ExpressVPN to protect your data and privacy, would benefit you for these type of public network connection problems and save you from wasting time for hassling with cheat methods. This will buy you some time for dealing with your business when you are in a hurry but methods besides VPN will not be interested in securing your network connection or data while you transmit or share during the use of free Wi-Fi.
Public networks include several risks posed by interveners such as recording all the data transmitted known as the “Packet Sniffing” technique, faking a public network to steal information all users connected to that network, and intercepting the communication between two users taking place at this type of networks.
All these risks may lead to severe consequences for you. Especially if you are connecting to a public network with your business computer, your business-sensitive data may be compromised and this would have too many setbacks for your career as well as for your company.
So, do not rely on the easy-breezy solutions. Follow the right path and use a VPN when you need to connect to a free public network. It will take a few minutes to set up after you decide on the best VPN that suits your needs.
