Unsecured network

[Ed Cryer]

I use Firefox and Chrome on my phone. Both give the same problem in
public hotspots where they previously didn't. Everytime I select those
wifi's the programs refuse to use them; unsecured network.
Has something changed? Or am I missing something in Settings?

Ed

[Jim S]

I use Firefox on a Samsung. My wife uses Chrome on a Samsung.
In a hotel today she got an 'Unsecured network' message - I didn't.
Doesn't help you, but it confuses me.
--
Jim S

[VanguardLH]

A lot, probably most, wi-fi hotspots intervene in the connection with
their announcement, validation, or notification page (whatever they want
to call it). That has you agree to their conditions and may even
require you enter a login to allow traffic through their network to your
node (the page they show comes from their server).

In Firefox, it's called Captive Portal detection; see:
https://bgstack15.wordpress.com/2017/05/05/disabling-firefox-detect-captive-portal/
https://wiki.mozilla.org/QA/Captive_Portals

detectportal.captive was the setting to disable this "feature"; however,
I think Mozilla changed it to network.captive-portal-service.enabled. I
had the prior setting disabled and now that setting is no longer listed
and instead the latter named one is False (disabled). There was a bug
(#1354245, fixed) where Firefox was still polling its captive portal
detection site (to see if the poll was getting blocked) although the
captive portal service in Firefox had been disabled, and is why users
would set the captive portal URL (captivedetect.canonicalURL)) to
something else, like a blank value (empty string).

The captive portal detection was causing lots of problems (e.g.,
http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=3030018&p=14747993).
I ran into some problem with it (but don't remember it now), figured out
it was a new feature that caused the problem, and disabled captive
portal detection in Firefox.

Sorry, but Google Chrome has NEVER been as blessed (or cursed) as
Firefox regarding configurability. I'm not sure there is a config
option, like in chrome://flags, that will disable this feature which has
also caused problems with sites with captive portal redirection (e.g.,
https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/chrome/qKqXmS477Ps).

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1k-gP2sswzYNvryu9NcgN7q5XrsMlUdlUdoW9WRaEmfM/edit
https://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/chromiumos-design-docs/network-portal-detection

It looks like Google did what Mozilla did in trying to connect to an
external site via HTTPS to see if block (meaning possibly behind a
captive portal). Unless I missed it, nothing there saying how to
disable that "feature". The --disable-chrome-captive-portal-detector
command-line switch can be used when loading chrome.exe; however, that
only works when using the command-line, like in a shortcut, to load
Chrome, not when Chrome is called as a child process, like when clicking
a hyperlink within an e-mail. Since China's Great Firewall blocks
access to Google's servers, I wonder what the Chinese do to get Chrome
to work despite its captive detection failing (and without rooting their
phone to alter the OS handling).

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/what-does-your-connection-is-not-secure-mean

From some reading, looks like captive portals are supposed to get their
own site certificates (since they are redirecting you to their internal
page but via HTTPS).

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1150666

The suggestion there is to first connect to an HTTP site, get the
redirect to the captive portal's login/announcement page, and then
continue surfing using HTTP or HTTPS. Also don't use an HTTPS site as
your home page to which you web browser first goes when you load it.
I've never used a home page, it has always been about:blank. It is rare
that on every open of the web browser that I would always want to start
at the same site -- so rare that it has never happened. I click on a
hyperlink or I open the web browser and then enter the URL or use a
bookmark to decide where to go. The last time I had a non-blank home
page was back in AOL's heyday but even then I soon decided it was a
waste of my time to wait for a page to load that I didn't want since I
was always going somewhere else.

Are you using a VPN? After doing some research, I found all of them
slowed down my connection and very few were actually secure. Since the
VPN client expects to connect directly to the VPN server, perhaps
captive portaling gets in the way. Just because a hotspot is price-free
doesn't mean it is hassle-free. Does the problem happen at just a
couple of wi-fi hotspots that you often reuse or have you tried lots of
hotspots, like OTHER than the coffee shops and fast food joints?

Often a hotspot will use DNS spoofing: no matter where you try to
connect, they intercept the DNS request and send back the IP address for
their captive portal/login page. Web browsers don't like this. Often
the hotspot used 1.1.1.1 for their DNS redirection; however, now that's
a registered IP address:

https://www.cloudflare.com/learning/dns/what-is-1.1.1.1/

So some users have begun seeing what looks like an ad but is Cloudflare
trying to cull users into using their DNS server (instead of Google's,
OpenDNS, etc).

[nospam]

In article <1d0sv0a07shdf$.dlg@v.nguard.lh>, VanguardLH <V...@nguard.LH>
wrote:

>
> Are you using a VPN? After doing some research, I found all of them
> slowed down my connection and very few were actually secure.

you must not have done much research.

while speed varies among various vpns, the better ones only have minor
impact, and outside of downloading large files (i.e., pirating), any
overhead won't be noticed. it's not like an extra second or two to send
an email is significant, if it's even noticed..

just about all vpns are secure unless the client is misconfigured. some
vpns are scams, but those are not that hard to identify and avoid.

> Since the
> VPN client expects to connect directly to the VPN server, perhaps
> captive portaling gets in the way.

it doesn't.

> Just because a hotspot is price-free
> doesn't mean it is hassle-free. Does the problem happen at just a
> couple of wi-fi hotspots that you often reuse or have you tried lots of
> hotspots, like OTHER than the coffee shops and fast food joints?

it's very rare that a hotspot is a hassle.

clicking an 'i agree' or typing in a password is not a hassle.

> Often a hotspot will use DNS spoofing: no matter where you try to
> connect, they intercept the DNS request and send back the IP address for
> their captive portal/login page. Web browsers don't like this. Often
> the hotspot used 1.1.1.1 for their DNS redirection; however, now that's
> a registered IP address:

1.1.1.1 has always been a routable address.

any networking equipment that uses it for internal use is defective.

[g...@nospam.com]

Using an older windows laptop on the WIFI at a nearby fast food
restaurant, I have to begin use of the WIFI by clicking "CONNECT" after
I am (supposed to) read all their disclaimers. Once I am connected, it
stays connected, unless there is a blip on their server. It happens from
time to time, probably because of high usage, or maybe their signal is
interrupted by some of their cooking devices.

Regardless, if a blip occurs, I lose my connection to the WIFI, and that
means I need to click that "CONNECT" button again. Quite often I do not
notice I was briefly disconnected. What I then get is an error message
saying something about "unsecured network" (I use Firefox on that
laptop).

I have never understood why it cant just tell me that I need to
reconnect, rather than that vague "unsecured network" crap, is beyond
me. I am not sure if that stupid message is part of Windows, or from
Firefox. All I know, is the first time that happened, I spent a few
hours being really annoyed before I figured out the problem. Since then,
I learned that I will need to reconnect, which often means clearing my
cache first, and sometimes I have to close and restart Firefox.

Anyhow, your wife probably got disconnected from the WIFI for a few
moments. (Just a guess, based on what I experienced).