Captive portal is running slow… :(

[abebraham]

When people log into my open wifi network some people take anywhere from 20 secs to 3 minutes to get a request to login. Has anyone found a way to speed up the captive portal? Currently we have a local setup… just using a customize captive portal html/css.

Thanks!

[Gertjan]

yes !

Easy  ;)

Set a default home page like http://www.google.com and you'll get to the login page right away.
On the other hand : use https://www.google.com and you might wait forever….

OS's like Microsoft Windows, MAC OS, iOS, etc will detect the presence of the portal and open up a browser to let you login without much assistance.
Other systems, and messed up system -> unknown.

[abebraham]

Oh interesting…

So if I don't see the portal showing up, could I just navigate to http://www.google.com and the portal should be quicker?

[Gertjan]

@abebraham:

Oh interesting…

So if I don't see the portal showing up, could I just navigate to http://www.google.com and the portal should be quicker?

I guess I tried every device that exists on the market the last 10 years.
Yes, that will work.
Otherwise : the concept of "captive portal" would work.
Or, it does so for me (my clients) for the last ….. many years now.

[simbora]

i had built up and test for month but i found some smartphone can popup Login page automatically and some smartphone not even appear anything,

could anyone explain how to allow all mobile/laptop can popup login page after get open WiFi connected?

thanks
Apiroh

[Gertjan]

@simbora:

….
could anyone explain how to allow all mobile/laptop can popup login page after get open WiFi connected?

It's not something that you 'allow'.
It just happens.
Samsung devices, Apple devices, Windows (7,8,10 etc) and MAC OS devices will produce a 'navigator' window which enables them to login using the captive portal because the OS detected a open "ethernet link" (the wifi connection is up, it received an IPv4) but it can't "http out" to a site like "portal.apple.com" iOS and MAC OS uses this URL.

You should probably 'allow' all this to work correctly by setting up pfSense correctly.
You can't check every visitor's devices if they don't "block something", that isn't needed.
IF a users device doesn't work with my portal I always say to these people : "bring your device back to default and it will work". Up to today I was never wrong.

[simbora]

Dear Bro

Thanks a lot for your sharing, and i will test as what you mentioned again.

[Gertjan]

@simbora:

….
could anyone explain how to allow all mobile/laptop can popup login page after get open WiFi connected?

It's not something that you 'allow'.
It just happens.
Samsung devices, Apple devices, Windows (7,8,10 etc) and MAC OS devices will produce a 'navigator' window which enables them to login using the captive portal because the OS detected a open "ethernet link" (the wifi connection is up, it received an IPv4) but it can't "http out" to a site like "portal.apple.com" (iOS and MAC OS uses this URL).
edit : I added : Instead, this "http out"will get redirected by the firewall rules of pfSEnse to another page : our captive portal login page.
The fact that the "http out" gets redirected (and NOT returning a simple "Ok" or "Success" ) will open and show a navigator to the user. The login is possible !

You should probably 'allow' all this to work correctly by setting up pfSense correctly.
You can't check every visitor's devices if they don't "block something", that isn't needed.
IF a users device doesn't work with my portal I always say to these people : "bring your device back to default and it will work". Up to today I was never wrong.

[simbora]

Thanks a lot.