Public Wifi Issue

Help setting up WiFi
n5lub
Posts: 9
Joined: Mon Sep 10, 2018 3:10 pm

Re: Public Wifi Issue

Post by n5lub »

Well I do have a TP Link as a matter of fact, bought it a year ago thinking i’d use it with an Openspot since it needs an ethernet connection. However, the Zumspot has wifi so that’s easier, and a great solution.
My thought was to use a 3.5” Nextion touchscreen and try to run a stand alone connection directly off the Raspberry, if in fact it is doable. But meanwhile this solution should provide my Zumspot access. Thanks for the reminder!
N5lub 73
N4GWB
Posts: 25
Joined: Thu Sep 06, 2018 11:09 pm
Location: Dallas, GA

Re: Public Wifi Issue

Post by N4GWB »

Great...

Well, I bought this...

https://www.amazon.com/TP-Link-Wireless ... vel+router

It is a travel wifi router/repeater. I connected it to my work's guest wifi and it gets through the authorization and anything connected to it was straight to the internet without issue (my phone anyway). Then I tried the Chinese Jumbo spot via 2.4ghz wifi. NO GO. Apparently the guest wifi has the ports necessary for a d-star link blocked. The jumbo spot could reach the internet, but none of the d-star reflectors would successfully connect.

Well, I have a subscription to a popular VPN service, IPVanish, and decided to give that a go. The router above supports openvpn and with the IPVanish opvn files, I was able to connect the travel router to the VPN via the "public" wifi. Once I did this, all traffic is passed to the net and the hotspot is working normally.

So, with the router I could connect to "public" wifi and get past the web authorization portal (which is what I set out to do). And, as a plus, with this router and a VPN, I am able to get past the port blocking of the "public" wifi.

I am quite happy!
n5lub
Posts: 9
Joined: Mon Sep 10, 2018 3:10 pm

Re: Public Wifi Issue

Post by n5lub »

N4GWB,
You posted “It is a travel wifi router/repeater. I connected it to my work's guest wifi and it gets through the authorization and anything connected to it was straight to the internet without issue (my phone anyway).”

How exactly are you connecting to your work’s guest wifi without going through the authorization routine?
To be specific, I have been trying to do this very thing with my TP-link TL WR802n mini router to Spectrum Wifi for which I have an internet service home account.

My question is : how is this done without first satisfying the Spectrum (Public) wifi’s login routine? . If you are, what browser are you using? The phone’s ????
Thanks! Appreciate your post
N4GWB
Posts: 25
Joined: Thu Sep 06, 2018 11:09 pm
Location: Dallas, GA

Re: Public Wifi Issue

Post by N4GWB »

n5lub wrote: Sun Nov 11, 2018 1:10 am N4GWB,
You posted “It is a travel wifi router/repeater. I connected it to my work's guest wifi and it gets through the authorization and anything connected to it was straight to the internet without issue (my phone anyway).”

How exactly are you connecting to your work’s guest wifi without going through the authorization routine?
To be specific, I have been trying to do this very thing with my TP-link TL WR802n mini router to Spectrum Wifi for which I have an internet service home account.

My question is : how is this done without first satisfying the Spectrum (Public) wifi’s login routine? . If you are, what browser are you using? The phone’s ????
Thanks! Appreciate your post

Well the public wifi at my work requires an "authorization" when you first connect. When you connect with your phone and try to go to any web page, you are redirected to an internal page on the public network that lists the rules of usage etc. Once this is accepted, you can then get onto the internet with your device (for whatever period of time until it resets and requires authorization again). So, in this case, I turn on the travel router, which has its own Wifi SSID of "whodat." I connect my phone to "whodat" and navigate to the travel router's internal configuration page. On the router configuration page, I direct it to connect to my "WORK PUBLIC WIFI SSID" and it connects. Then, back to the phone and use a browser to go to any web page. The phone browser gets redirected to the WORK PUBLIC WIFI authorization page. You accept (or enter a given password if required) then you are authorized. After that the WORK PUBLIC WIFI sees all traffic through the travel router the same as if it came from the phone and it passes to the internet. Of course this can be limited by the open ports, but whatever would be allowed to your phone, will now be allowed to anything connected to the travel router.

I hope I explained that well...
n5lub
Posts: 9
Joined: Mon Sep 10, 2018 3:10 pm

Re: Public Wifi Issue

Post by n5lub »

N4GWB,
Thanks for outlining these steps! Im planning on trying it today. Hope it works for me.
Good information , again appreciate yours and all others posts to this issue who need or want to use public wifi.
I’ll follow up with a post soon.
73
AE2T
Posts: 4
Joined: Thu Nov 15, 2018 4:14 pm

Re: Public Wifi Issue

Post by AE2T »

N4GWB wrote: Thu Oct 18, 2018 3:21 pm Well, after a bit of reading, I think I am going to give this box a shot...

https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN ... 02-20?th=1

It will connect to work/hotel wifi and then provide its own wifi connectable network. It also works with popular VPN providers and Open-WRT router software. It was rated the best by a couple tech blogs and with the open source router software flashability, will likely be supported long after most manufacturers would abandon support.

This is definitely not the cheapest method to solve our problem. But, it seems like it should work and it will provide many other great use possibilities beyond just what were looking for using. PLUS, if it does not work, or I do not like it, amazon has an awesome return policy.
That still requires some way to log in to the public wifi and set up your new AP. You're really just moving the login problem to another place by adding more hardware.

It looks relatively easy to spoof a MAC address on a Pi. Many solutions come up in a Google search. It looks like it might be as simple as adding a few lines to a config file before you add the connection.

If you can get the RPi to have the same MAC address as your smartphone, just log in with the phone, then turn off it's wi-fi and power up the hotspot. Since most public wi-fi remembers a device for at least several hours, you should be good to go.

This could be something that could be added to Pi-Star in a configuration screen. A field to enter an alternative MAC address would let you make your Pi-Star masquerade as another device.
n5lub
Posts: 9
Joined: Mon Sep 10, 2018 3:10 pm

Re: Public Wifi Issue

Post by n5lub »

Good idea, we’re working on it😀😀
Wk0i
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Jan 21, 2019 1:53 pm

Re: Public Wifi Issue

Post by Wk0i »

There are many solutions to this problem.
The way I got around login screens on public/hotel WiFi, was to purchase a travel router. I chose the TP-Link (WR902AC).
I run it in the "share hotspot mode". My procedure is to plug it in and connect my PC to the local AP provided by the TP-Link. Then I just launch another web browser tab on my PC and the public login appears. After I login on the public page using my PC, the TP-Link serves internet to any device connected to it. For example my pi-star...
The TP-Link also provides other useful functions as well... For example VPN functions.

Someone else on this forum posted this very solution. I successfully followed their instructions and conquered... :-)

73, John / WK0I
...-.-
User avatar
w7efs
Posts: 335
Joined: Sun Apr 22, 2018 4:26 pm

Re: Public Wifi Issue

Post by w7efs »

n5lub wrote: Sat Oct 13, 2018 11:48 pm Many public / guest Wi-Fi connections require a web browser to register for security reasons. ...
No, that simply authenticates through a proxy web client/server. Most of them that I've investigated are still fully vulnerable to "man-in-the-middle" attacks, where a talented proxy administrator can view or misrepresent any of your data, encrypted or not.
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