Overview

A captive portal is a web page that requires authentication -- such as filling out a username/password, entering just a password, or clicking a box to agree to their terms of service -- before allowing access to the rest of the network and the Internet.

This type of access is often found on networks located at airports, hotels, coffee shops, academic/educational settings and in some businesses.

It's most commonly found on Wi-Fi networks, but it's also possible for a captive portal to be present on wired Ethernet connections.

Teradek products don't support direct connections to captive portal networks as there's no way for our product to fill out the web page or agree to the terms of service on your behalf.

Workaround

It is possible to use the Cube, VidiU or other Teradek products in this type of scenario with third party software or hardware or products.

In either case -- wireless or wired captive portal connection -- you would have to use another device (laptop, tablet or phone) to authorize the connection and agree to the terms of service.

After the connection has been authorized, you may be able to stream out of the captive portal network from the Teradek device. If you're unable to stream, please see the troubleshooting section further below.

NOTE: the below options are provided for reference; Teradek cannot support the configuration of third party hardware or software, including the Mac OS or Windows operating system.

Software Solutions

Android, macOS and Windows systems have built-in Internet Sharing capabilities, and there are third party programs for Windows such as Connectify which allow advanced functionality.

Android

Certain Samsung and LG phones offer the ability to share a Wi-Fi network over their Wi-Fi hotspot instead of sharing cellular data.

• On Samsung phones this is typically called "Wi-Fi sharing" and is an option under the Mobile Hotspot settings.
• On LG phones this is generally called "Share via connected Wi-Fi" when configuring the hotspot settings.

Consult your phone's manual to determine if this feature is possible on your device.

macOS

• macOS High Sierra (10.13)
• macOS Mojave (10.14)
• macOS Catalina (10.15)

Windows

• Windows 10 : Sharing a wired Ethernet or Wi-Fi connection over Wi-Fi

Hardware Solutions

Captive Portal on a Wi-Fi connection

To share a Wi-Fi connection, the hardware product must have what is referred to as "Wi-Fi as WAN" capabilities to bridge between the Wi-Fi network with the captive portal and your own locally-created network.

5Gstore has a list of Wi-Fi as WAN capable products for reference.

Captive Portal on a Wired Ethernet connection

If you're trying to use a wired connection with a captive portal, you'd need to use a product which has an Ethernet port to connect to the on-site network (often labeled as "WAN" or "Internet").

• to use a local wired connection to your Teradek product, a second "LAN" Ethernet port is required to provide local wired access to the Teradek device.
• to use a local Wi-Fi connection to your Teradek product, the router must be capable of generating a local Wi-Fi network.
  

Although not specifically endorsed or supported by Teradek, some examples of routers with the above capabilities include:

• Pepwave Surf-on-the-Go 
• Cradlepoint's products listing Wi-Fi as WAN capability 
• D-Link DIR-510L
• Netgear Trek PR2000 Travel Router
• TP-Link TL-WR710N
• ZyXEL MWR102

NOTE: Be sure to check the specifications for any product to ensure it has the features required for your desired workflow.

Troubleshooting

Even though the captive portal connection may have been authorized by an authorized device, there may be additional factors which limit or prevent streaming on this network,

Port blocking

Shared internet connections may block outbound ports except for those used by standard web browsing activity. If you're unable to stream to destinations like YouTube, or to connect to Core or Sharelink, then it's likely that the outbound connection is being filtered.

Bandwidth Throttling / Bandwidth Limiting

Shared internet connections may restrict how quickly any individual connection can send through them to prevent any one device from using the available bandwidth.

If you're unable to sustain a stream at your desired video bitrate or the connection is dropping repeatedly, you may need to decrease your encoded video bitrate.