Captive portal not appearing

[Jean Michel]

I just made my first librarybox based on a stock TP-LINK 3020 device and the current software. All went well installing it, and I've set up my own password on the librarybox. I can connect to it over wifi, and access it using a browser at 192.168.1.1. It also acts as DHCP and DNS server, as expected. The DNS maps all URLs to 192.168.1.1, again as expected.

However, when I connect to it over wifi, I'd expect the "captive portal" page to appear. It does not. I've tried using MacOS X 10.9.4, iOS 7 and Android 4.1.2 (from a Samsung tablet).

From http://jasongriffey.net/librarybox/whatis.php I gather that "the webserver acts like a captive portal", which I interpret to mean that the librarybox is expected to slide up the Captive Portal Assistant on iOS devices, displaying its portal page, and then after clicking some button in the CPA "mini browser" bounce me over to the real web browser for further interactions.

Perhaps I've misunderstood what the device is supposed to do here?

-JM

[Jason Griffey]

The captive portal line refers to the fact that if, while connected to the wifi signal, you try to visit a webpage, it drives you to the LibraryBox interface.

Try connecting to the wifi signal with a device, launch a browser, and visit http://cnn.com, or librarybox.us, or any non-https site.

Jason

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[Jean Michel]

OK, so it will not actually pop up the Captive Portal Assistant (CPA) on, e.g., an iOS device then? 

It was my hope that it would do so, since that's what I'm trying to get to grips with. 

But in reality it appears what you've worked hard to accomplish is to not trigger the CPA by explicitly detecting the various "CPA sniffer" requests, and responding to those with the "Success" data they expect to believe they're out on the wild-wild-web. Correct?

-JM

[Jason Griffey]

That is correct! We did bypass the CPA because it caused havoc, scaring people with "THIS IS NOT THE INTERNET" messages. Far easier to bypass and let the browser do the work.

jason

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[Matthias Strubel]

Hi,
the problem is, that if the iphone runs in the captive portal mode, the browser is very restricted.

Matthias

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[Jean Michel]

Yes, I understand that. I was just confused by the repeated mentioning of "captive portal" support, and took that to mean that the LibraryBox did provide a "captive portal" as part of discovering its service. I'm currently trying to figure out how that can be done, and thought that if LibraryBox already does this, all I have to do is get one and look how it is done (since it's all open source). So I was somewhat disappointed to find out that it doesn't actually provide a "captive portal" after all. 

It could make sense to update its documentation to state that it designed to "suppress" or "avoid" the Captive Portal Assistant (CPA), rather than evoke it.

My thinking was that if it did evoke the CPA, this could make the LibraryBox web-based UI pop up automatically when connecting to the LibraryBox through wifi, rather than having to manually launch a browser and go to a random URL. Once connection has been established, a button could be provided on the initial CPA web page to bring up the system browser to the correct URL (after giving the proper response to the HTTP requests CPA make to establish that it can "see the Internet"). Doing things this way would simplify the initial user experience and "log on" procedure in cases where a CPA is provided by the OS, since it would remove the need to manually open a browser and type in a dummy URL.

-JM

[Liz Paulus]

JM - thanks for asking this question. I wondered why LibraryBox didn't trigger the CPA (now I know what that's called !)

I've always had problems connecting to my libraryboxen with my iOS devices (iPhone 4 and iPads ) - because after I connect to the box, when I open a new browser it says "you're not connected to the internet" almost every time.

I have to clear all history and all cookies from the Settings dialog, explicitly close the app, restart it and then open LibraryBox.lan to get the page to come up.

since the captive portal is not an option, can u tell me how I can get my iOS devices to load the LibraryBox more easily?

thanks for your advice (and yes, I did get my kickstarter package right after I sent my whiny email - sorry to be a pest, and thanks for all you do!) - Liz in PDX

[Jason Griffey]

Liz,

I have used LibraryBox 2.0 with literally dozens and dozens of iOS devices, and have never seen the behavior you  describe. Do you have any network-specific customizations? Run a VPN by default? Custom DNS on your device? anything? 

It does take a few seconds for LibraryBox to deliver an IP after you see the initial "connected" wifi indicator, but after that, Safari should auto-forward to the LibraryBox interface upon visiting any http: website. 

The CPA on iOS can't really be used, as Matthias said, because the browser built into it is VERY limited (sandboxed for security) and it then needs the "ok" message from the Internet to allow Safari to then open. Very hard to manage locally, and since it appeared to be working fairly well for everyone (I thought) we never looked at options other than what we've got now.

I am confused as to why you're having such a bad experience with it on iOS...will look into it.

Jason

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[Liz Paulus]

J - well, like most days in tech support, when I fired up my box just now, both my iphone 4 and iPad mini retina worked better than usual for me.
As in, the iPad resolved the portal page on the second try, after explicitly entering librarybox.lan as an address.

The iPhone 4r actually worked on the 1st try today, using an already open tab showing imdb.com. When I refreshed the existing tab to IMDB, it redirected to librarybox as it should.

But, my eye caught that you said "any http://" address. With so many sites defaulting to https:// these days, especially Google (even WordPress.org blogs and such), could that throw a bit more randomness into my signon experience? I know that I get impatient when demoing librarybox, so part of my frustration is probably waiting for the IP to resolve, but add in something else like an https:// issue, and maybe that's enough to make it seem like it's weird.

I say this because I don't have any other customizations (no fancy DNS, etc.) My devices are pretty vanilla, except for that I tend to turn on most privacy and and security stuff. (Noticed today that Google Groups wouldn't let me log on unless I turned off Do Not Track - sigh.)

So, I know I hijacked this thread a bit - if you want to continue the conversation, maybe we should do it in a new thread. But, I'm not sure whether there's much to be done -- except to remember to wait, then use a http:// default site (or explicit librarybox.lan)p to access.

-- Liz

[Jason Griffey]

Just to close the loop.... :-)

Yes, https url's don't forward appropriately...they are looking for an SSL certificate as a "first action" for the request, and (obviously) LibraryBox doesn't have one...which prevents forwarding.It's on my "to fix" list, and hopefully I'll get that tested and into the 2.1. 

I usually recommend people connect and then explicitly visit http://librarybox.us 

Hopefully more info soon, as I get a chance to test the fix...

Jason

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[Matthias Strubel]

To keep the thread rolling....

The only workaround, that is in my mind, it to install a "real" CaptivePortal software, that really really says "no internet".
That would make iOS to PopUp a  browser with a disclaimer and description page. Here, only here, you can make the user sensitive for not using http\s/ - then - after pushing "OK", you can lead the user to http://librarybox.lan  directly - and enable with our fake "internet ok" replies the full Client-System.

That will only work on devices, which implemented that style of CaptivePortals.

The configuration is not done overnight, so we can focus that for 2.2 , maybe (depends on the timeframe left). I think about that solution for PirateBox as well, because we have even more NEED to write a disclaimer about the box.

Matthias

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[edson ribeiro]

Hi People... Try to enter, on the iPad and or any other like-apparatus, the IP 192.168.1.1 instead "xxxxBox.lan". This solved all my problems with the Captive Portal. Best regards, Edson.
Em terça-feira, 2 de setembro de 2014 11h49min11s UTC-3, Liz Paulus escreveu:

J - well, like most da ys in tech support, when I fired up my box just now, both my iphone 4 and iPad mini retina worked better than usual for me.

[edson ribeiro]

Ok Liz Paulus... That is! Best regards, Edson.

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