1 00:00:00,330 --> 00:00:01,290 In this lesson, 2 00:00:01,290 --> 00:00:02,582 we're going to discuss captive portals 3 00:00:02,582 --> 00:00:05,550 and some issues you may experience when you're using them. 4 00:00:05,550 --> 00:00:07,890 First, what is a captive portal? 5 00:00:07,890 --> 00:00:09,720 Well, a captive portal is a webpage 6 00:00:09,720 --> 00:00:11,550 that's accessed from your web browser, 7 00:00:11,550 --> 00:00:13,620 and it's going to be displayed to newly connected users 8 00:00:13,620 --> 00:00:16,440 of a wireless network before they're granted broader access 9 00:00:16,440 --> 00:00:18,030 to network resources. 10 00:00:18,030 --> 00:00:19,710 Captive portals are commonly going to be used 11 00:00:19,710 --> 00:00:21,990 to present a landing page or a login page, 12 00:00:21,990 --> 00:00:24,270 which is going to require authentication, payment, 13 00:00:24,270 --> 00:00:26,550 or acceptance of an end user license agreement 14 00:00:26,550 --> 00:00:28,470 or something like acceptable use policies, 15 00:00:28,470 --> 00:00:30,810 survey completion, or some other kind of information 16 00:00:30,810 --> 00:00:32,790 we're trying to collect from you before we allow you 17 00:00:32,790 --> 00:00:35,100 to get onto our network and our resources. 18 00:00:35,100 --> 00:00:37,020 Now, these captive portals are commonly used 19 00:00:37,020 --> 00:00:39,930 at places like hotels, restaurants, airports, 20 00:00:39,930 --> 00:00:41,490 and other places that give you free 21 00:00:41,490 --> 00:00:44,790 or paid wireless networks for you to connect to and use. 22 00:00:44,790 --> 00:00:46,408 In general, captive portals are implemented 23 00:00:46,408 --> 00:00:49,980 by using an HTTP redirect, an ICMP redirect, 24 00:00:49,980 --> 00:00:51,630 or a DNS redirect. 25 00:00:51,630 --> 00:00:54,270 We're going to talk about all three of those in this lesson. 26 00:00:54,270 --> 00:00:56,940 Now, when a user attempts to log into a wireless network 27 00:00:56,940 --> 00:00:59,370 and the captive portal doesn't redirect them properly, 28 00:00:59,370 --> 00:01:01,650 it can be a really frustrating experience. 29 00:01:01,650 --> 00:01:03,660 I personally had this happen to me a lot, 30 00:01:03,660 --> 00:01:06,540 but luckily, I know how to troubleshoot and fix this issue, 31 00:01:06,540 --> 00:01:08,850 and after this video, you will too. 32 00:01:08,850 --> 00:01:10,468 Now, for example, I was flying home recently 33 00:01:10,468 --> 00:01:13,920 on a Delta flight, and they use a captive portal system. 34 00:01:13,920 --> 00:01:16,380 When you connect to the Delta Wi-Fi network on the plane, 35 00:01:16,380 --> 00:01:17,460 it's supposed to redirect you 36 00:01:17,460 --> 00:01:19,140 to the captive portal's login page 37 00:01:19,140 --> 00:01:20,790 so you can enter your account information 38 00:01:20,790 --> 00:01:23,640 so you can access the internet if you're a SkyMiles member. 39 00:01:23,640 --> 00:01:25,620 Now, this didn't work on my MacBook Pro, though, 40 00:01:25,620 --> 00:01:27,840 so I had to begin troubleshooting this issue 41 00:01:27,840 --> 00:01:30,120 and figure out what was causing the problem. 42 00:01:30,120 --> 00:01:31,920 It could have been any of the three redirect methods, 43 00:01:31,920 --> 00:01:33,780 'cause I didn't know which one they were using. 44 00:01:33,780 --> 00:01:35,661 So let's say first I went and tried to see 45 00:01:35,661 --> 00:01:38,010 if they used an HTTP redirect. 46 00:01:38,010 --> 00:01:40,950 With an HTTP redirect, all traffic is redirected 47 00:01:40,950 --> 00:01:42,750 to a web server that they control, 48 00:01:42,750 --> 00:01:45,120 and then this web server redirects the clients 49 00:01:45,120 --> 00:01:49,620 to the captive portal using an HTTP status code of 302. 50 00:01:49,620 --> 00:01:51,300 In the case of this in-flight Wi-Fi, 51 00:01:51,300 --> 00:01:52,620 that is not what they were using, 52 00:01:52,620 --> 00:01:55,260 and so I moved on in my troubleshooting efforts. 53 00:01:55,260 --> 00:01:58,033 Second, I looked to see if they were using ICMP packets 54 00:01:58,033 --> 00:02:00,450 to redirect me to a captive portal. 55 00:02:00,450 --> 00:02:02,026 Now, ICMP is a network protocol 56 00:02:02,026 --> 00:02:03,900 that's used to send error messages 57 00:02:03,900 --> 00:02:06,420 and operational information indicating the success 58 00:02:06,420 --> 00:02:09,360 or failure of communicating with another IP address. 59 00:02:09,360 --> 00:02:12,030 With an ICMP redirect, it's not a very common way 60 00:02:12,030 --> 00:02:14,730 to do captive portals these days, at least in my experience, 61 00:02:14,730 --> 00:02:17,040 and again, I found that they were not using that 62 00:02:17,040 --> 00:02:18,930 inside of the in-flight Wi-Fi, 63 00:02:18,930 --> 00:02:21,120 and so I moved on to step three. 64 00:02:21,120 --> 00:02:23,430 Step three is probably your most common type, 65 00:02:23,430 --> 00:02:26,220 and this is what's known as a DNS redirection. 66 00:02:26,220 --> 00:02:28,740 Now, when the client joins the in-flight Wi-Fi 67 00:02:28,740 --> 00:02:31,260 onboard the aircraft, the client gets an IP address, 68 00:02:31,260 --> 00:02:32,910 a subnet mask, a gateway, 69 00:02:32,910 --> 00:02:35,460 and a DNS server IP from the network. 70 00:02:35,460 --> 00:02:37,050 Now, this is all handed out to you 71 00:02:37,050 --> 00:02:38,940 from the onboard DHCP server 72 00:02:38,940 --> 00:02:40,770 when you connect to the network. 73 00:02:40,770 --> 00:02:42,900 Now, when the client opens up a web browser 74 00:02:42,900 --> 00:02:46,530 to connect to a website, like diontrain.com or google.com, 75 00:02:46,530 --> 00:02:49,320 the client is going to be redirected to the onboard DNS server 76 00:02:49,320 --> 00:02:52,410 and then redirected to that captive portal page. 77 00:02:52,410 --> 00:02:53,912 This is exactly what the in-flight Wi-Fi 78 00:02:53,912 --> 00:02:55,380 is attempting to use, 79 00:02:55,380 --> 00:02:58,050 but it wasn't working on my MacBook Pro. 80 00:02:58,050 --> 00:02:59,490 Now, why is that? 81 00:02:59,490 --> 00:03:02,010 Well, the issue was my client was already configured 82 00:03:02,010 --> 00:03:05,010 to use DNS from a static server that I assigned 83 00:03:05,010 --> 00:03:07,770 and not the onboard Wi-Fi's DNS server. 84 00:03:07,770 --> 00:03:11,700 Instead, I always use my DNS server as 8.8.8.8, 85 00:03:11,700 --> 00:03:14,580 which is Google's DNS server, because I trust that one. 86 00:03:14,580 --> 00:03:17,340 So I was configured to use Google's DNS server, 87 00:03:17,340 --> 00:03:19,680 not the onboard DNS server, and therefore, 88 00:03:19,680 --> 00:03:22,170 it couldn't redirect me to their captive portal. 89 00:03:22,170 --> 00:03:24,690 So I quickly disconnected from Wi-Fi, 90 00:03:24,690 --> 00:03:27,870 I cleared out my saved DNS setting of 8.8.8.8, 91 00:03:27,870 --> 00:03:30,780 and I set to automatically be configured over DHCP, 92 00:03:30,780 --> 00:03:33,330 then I reconnected to the onboard Wi-Fi. 93 00:03:33,330 --> 00:03:35,580 Immediately, I was forwarded to the captive portal, 94 00:03:35,580 --> 00:03:37,590 and I was able to get online and surf the web 95 00:03:37,590 --> 00:03:40,230 at 36,000 feet over the Atlantic Ocean. 96 00:03:40,230 --> 00:03:42,690 Isn't modern technology just wonderful? 97 00:03:42,690 --> 00:03:45,330 So what are some other common captive portal issues 98 00:03:45,330 --> 00:03:46,980 that you might experience? 99 00:03:46,980 --> 00:03:48,570 Well, if you're dealing with a smartphone, 100 00:03:48,570 --> 00:03:50,310 like an Apple or an Android device, 101 00:03:50,310 --> 00:03:51,840 especially with Apple devices, 102 00:03:51,840 --> 00:03:54,030 sometimes these things don't automatically load up 103 00:03:54,030 --> 00:03:56,850 the captive page upon connecting to the wireless network. 104 00:03:56,850 --> 00:03:59,490 If this occurs, you should first open up a web browser 105 00:03:59,490 --> 00:04:02,820 and try to go to any site, like google.com or facebook.com, 106 00:04:02,820 --> 00:04:05,100 something you know should always be up and available. 107 00:04:05,100 --> 00:04:07,680 This should cause the captive portal's HTTP 108 00:04:07,680 --> 00:04:09,720 or DNS redirects to take over 109 00:04:09,720 --> 00:04:12,420 and then present you with a captive portal login page. 110 00:04:12,420 --> 00:04:13,860 Now, if this doesn't work, 111 00:04:13,860 --> 00:04:15,606 then you're going to need to check your IP configuration 112 00:04:15,606 --> 00:04:19,019 of your smartphone and determine what the default gateway is 113 00:04:19,019 --> 00:04:21,000 for that wireless network you're connected to. 114 00:04:21,000 --> 00:04:24,510 Then you could type that IP address into your web browser. 115 00:04:24,510 --> 00:04:25,767 This will force load the captive portal 116 00:04:25,767 --> 00:04:27,660 in most cases as well. 117 00:04:27,660 --> 00:04:30,240 Now, the same thing can happen on your laptops as well, 118 00:04:30,240 --> 00:04:32,191 and if it does, I tend to follow the same 119 00:04:32,191 --> 00:04:34,320 three-step troubleshooting process. 120 00:04:34,320 --> 00:04:36,122 First, I open up a web browser and I try 121 00:04:36,122 --> 00:04:40,110 to go to any website, like google.com or facebook.com. 122 00:04:40,110 --> 00:04:41,910 Second, if that doesn't work, 123 00:04:41,910 --> 00:04:43,260 I determine what the default gateway 124 00:04:43,260 --> 00:04:47,370 for the wireless network is and I enter http:// 125 00:04:47,370 --> 00:04:49,860 and the IP address for that default gateway. 126 00:04:49,860 --> 00:04:51,510 Then I hit enter. 127 00:04:51,510 --> 00:04:55,380 Third, if that doesn't work, I verify my DNS server IPs 128 00:04:55,380 --> 00:04:56,550 and I make sure that it's not set 129 00:04:56,550 --> 00:04:59,130 to something like 8.8.8.8 manually, 130 00:04:59,130 --> 00:05:01,680 and instead, I turn on DHCP for it to allow me 131 00:05:01,680 --> 00:05:04,230 to auto-configure my DNS on my laptop 132 00:05:04,230 --> 00:05:06,090 to connect to their wireless network. 133 00:05:06,090 --> 00:05:07,950 Then I re-attempt step number one 134 00:05:07,950 --> 00:05:10,740 by opening up a web browser and going to any website again. 135 00:05:10,740 --> 00:05:12,120 Usually, these three steps 136 00:05:12,120 --> 00:05:14,040 will solve most of the issues you're going to come across 137 00:05:14,040 --> 00:05:15,153 with captive portals.