Netgate Discussion Forum
    • Categories
    • Recent
    • Tags
    • Popular
    • Users
    • Search
    • Register
    • Login

    Captive portal impossible to create

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Captive Portal
    6 Posts 3 Posters 594 Views
    Loading More Posts
    • Oldest to Newest
    • Newest to Oldest
    • Most Votes
    Reply
    • Reply as topic
    Log in to reply
    This topic has been deleted. Only users with topic management privileges can see it.
    • S
      starnix
      last edited by

      This post is deleted!
      GertjanG 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • GertjanG
        Gertjan @starnix
        last edited by

        @starnix said in Captive portal impossible to create:

        The last manual I followed was this one and it didn't help me but its works in the tutoriall
        Captive portal pfsense

        Why doing this the hard way ?

        Your link is telling you to create your own certificates ?,!? That's a no go these days. The hassle to have it being accepted on every device used on the portal isn't worth it. Go for trusted certificates. No one want to see these huge browser alerts any-more. Some browser even don't let you to force them to accept these certifciates.

        I agree, after setting up a simple http version of the portal, you should be using "https" which means you have to have a domain name - a 5 $ investment per year. The pfSense acme package comes in nicely to regenerate a new certificate automatically.

        What about the official way : the RTFM method - or, available since a couple of years : the official videos. There is a introduction video, and a more advanced one.

        This page has solution for the vast majority of issues that you might have https://docs.netgate.com/pfsense/en/latest/captiveportal/captive-portal-troubleshooting.html

        Btw : the real captive portal support isn't actually build into pfSense, or any other router for that matter. It's the OS of your device (Phone, PC, laptop, whatever) you're using to connect to the portal.

        ...
        Ok, it's still hard, setting up a portal the first time.
        A simple http portal only works fine and shouldn't take more then 10 minutes. Promised. if not, you already made bad network design decissions upfront (like f**ck*ng up the DNS, a very popular occupation among pfSense admins).
        Adding a https type portal login adds some steps that need to be learned and understood. Ones done, it rocks.
        I'm using it for years in a hotel, my portal testers are completely ignorant 'clients' that don't know nothing about all this stuff, they activate their Wifi, see our SSID, select it, the portal page pops up, they fill it in, and done, they have access.

        No "help me" PM's please. Use the forum, the community will thank you.
        Edit : and where are the logs ??

        S 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • S
          starnix @Gertjan
          last edited by

          @Gertjan
          The tests I do on a virtual machine Windows 7 client, but the other day I discovered by pinging the real machine I have (Windows 10) that I have two IPs.

          I did an ipconfig / all, how can it be possible?

          perhaps that is what gives me problems, although as I am saying to the captive portal I access through a virtual machine, not the real one

          GertjanG 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • GertjanG
            Gertjan @starnix
            last edited by

            @starnix said in Captive portal impossible to create:

            I did an ipconfig / all, how can it be possible?

            Wrong order.

            Read yourself back like this :

            how can it be possible?

            answer :

            I did an ipconfig / all

            Most PC's have Wifi NIC's and RJ45 connected and activated at the same time.
            Thus the device has 2 IP's ...

            No "help me" PM's please. Use the forum, the community will thank you.
            Edit : and where are the logs ??

            S 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • S
              starnix @Gertjan
              last edited by

              @Gertjan In the nic interface connection of my Windows 10 computer, in addition to showing a real IP configured manually, it shows me an additional second one and I have no idea how two IP addresses are shown in a single connection

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • R
                RegalMonkey
                last edited by

                @starnix It could be any number of reasons, if the device has something like virtualbox, a VPN client, or any other reason to have a virtual-nic it would show up as a second device. The trick to sort out is which interface is actually connecting to the network and does it have a suitable route to get there.

                You mention doing the tests via a virtual machine, if you mean on desktop virtualization like VirtualBox then one thing that could easily go wrong is that the virtual client device is configured for NAT mode rather than 'bridged'. If it's in NAT mode, then the captive portal would actually see the connection coming from the host device rather than the client. The problem there is that the client device only knows that its 'gateway' (the host) didn't respond to a web request, so it treats it as a 503 timeout rather than expecting a captive portal page.

                Check to see if it's on nat or bridge mode and switch to bridge if needed, then try again and let's see what happens.

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • First post
                  Last post
                Copyright 2025 Rubicon Communications LLC (Netgate). All rights reserved.