How to Connect to a Wi-Fi or Wired Network With a Captive Portal

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 hardware or software 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 would then be able to stream out of the captive portal network from the Teradek device.

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.

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.

 EVDOinfo / 3Gstore has an excellent article that describes Wi-Fi as WAN and also lists other considerations on placement of devices to minimize RF interference, available at this link. They also list additional Wi-Fi as WAN capable products.

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.

Software Solutions

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

Mac OS

OS X Yosemite : Share your Internet Connection

OS X El Capitan : Share your Internet Connection