Creating auto pop up browser on connect

[Alexander De Foe]

Hi all,

I've recently discovered LibraryBox and think it's a fantastic software.

However, I have noticed that when I log on to the wireless network with an iPad or iPhone it doesn't actually pop up the LibraryBox browser page straight away, a person has to manually visit their browser app and open any webpage, and then it redirects to LibraryBox.

On most hotspot networks I've connected to, as soon as you connect via settings, their page pops up without even having to open a browser, this happens automatically.

Thus, my question is, is it possible to do this with LibraryBox, to enable it to auto-open upon connection?

Thank you for any advice,

Alex

[Stephen Jones]

I'm kind of a newbie myself to this but Alex I think if you do a search in here for "captive portal" you'll find information you're looking for.

[Matthias Strubel]

Hey all,

we actively try to disable this popup - why?

This browser by iOS is a very minimalistic browser, which does not support all needed function to surf on the LibraryBox page. This is the reason, why we try to always fake the answers of the device-question "do I have internet" .

We actively do not run a classic captive portal solution, which first limits and then unlock.. only for a small part of the usable devices.

If you want to disable that kind of detection, rename the "library" folder in /opt/piratebox/www to something else and every iOS will get the popup (and won't be able to use the full browser).

best regards

Matthias

2015-09-01 15:35 GMT+02:00 Stephen Jones <nph.help...@gmail.com>:

I'm kind of a newbie myself to this but Alex I think if you do a search in here for "captive portal" you'll find information you're looking for.

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[Bennett Kobb]

Matthias may not have understood the question.

It seems to me that he asked about how the access point can open a web browser on the user's device after connecting to the AP, when the browser was not already open.

I do not know how that is achieved, but I suspect it is a function of the OS on the device. That is, some phones and Wi-Fi user devices may be designed to automatically start the browser if it is not already open.

It might be considered a a security risk for an AP to launch an application on the user's device without user action. So this behavior is not universal.

This is a separate issue from the iOS pseudobrowser -- what Apple calls a "web sheet". It is a not-fully-functioning browser that expects the user to login. The iOS launches this browser when it detects that it is connected to Wi-Fi, but cannot connect through to the Internet to reach an Apple site (at hundreds of different URLs set up for just this purpose, each named with combinations of Apple trademarks).

You can easily tell when your iOS device has launched this browser. A field at the top says Log In. A normal browser will not display that message.

LibraryBox fakes the client-server interaction so that the iOS device thinks it is on the Internet. I use a different method -- my Warmspot uses Node.js based web servers, which ignore the failed attempts to connect to the Apple sites.

[Matthias Strubel]

ehm, I'm pretty sure I understood what we are talking about :) maybe my answer was not hitting directly the right spot.

There is NO way to launch any application in the client operating system. The starting browser is triggered by the operating system in situation, when a limited/no internet connection is detected.

So there is no chance in starting an app or a browser directly from the AP itself.

Things like installed APPs may register on OS API and may get notified (there is an APP for Telekom hotspots & auto registration, I think). .. But this is not in scope.

Correct, we are not ignoring the request, we *are* answering that the user is not confused with a not fully working browser. Before iOS7, the user was not able to connect correctly to a network, which does not answer those CDN request.
BTW: The same method is now implemented in android, too.

We made this to circumvent restriction of iOS when connected to a non-internet wifi. The same thing is now implemented for Android on the latest PirateBox version, because I encountered different Samsung devices, which kept disconnecting from the wifi, when no internet was discovered :(

As you already stated, I'm glad it is not possible to open any application triggered by the AP, because I would easily inject a "rm / -rf" and wipe all writable filed ;)

long story short: No possibility to open a browser from an AccessPoint perspective

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[Bennett Kobb]

On Saturday, September 12, 2015 at 2:59:33 PM UTC-4, Matthias Strubel wrote:

The same thing is now implemented for Android on the latest PirateBox version, because I encountered different Samsung devices, which kept disconnecting from the wifi, when no internet was discovered :( 

I have seen this Samsung behavior too. May I please ask:

1. Are the Samsung devices trying to contact Samsung servers, to determine if an Internet connection exists?

2. How did you implement for Android? With user-agent string?

[Matthias Strubel]

1. yes they are

2. Here some links:

https://github.com/PirateBox-Dev/PirateBoxScripts_Webserver/issues/59  <- with some links and to the commits that solves it via PHP

and a solution using python:
https://github.com/PirateBox-Dev/PirateBoxScripts_Webserver/issues/115

If you need further info, please let me know :)

best regards Matthias

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