Hotel, Airport, Starbucks WiFi Troubleshooting

Background

If you are having difficulties getting on a hotel's (airport, coffee shop, etc also applies for this guide) WiFi network, here are some suggestions.

 

First, confirm with an official staff person of the locale that the WiFi network is legit - often bad actors put out impostor WiFi networks trying to compromise your device by intercepting your internet traffic.

In general, difficulties getting onto a hotel's WiFi network have to do with hotels making people agree to their terms of services on a 'gateway' type web page. The problem is these gateway web pages are notoriously unreliable in getting them to load from Windows computers.

 

Guide

First off, restart your computer. As you navigate between all these different physical locations and different WiFi networks you usually don't access, a fresh computer restart will often help if there's an issue. 

 

Second, try these specific steps to get on the hotel's WiFi:

1. Type neverssl.com in a web browser and try to go to it.
   1. Does this bring up the gateway web page? Try pressing F5 to force the web page to reload.
2. If it doesn't bring up the gateway web page, try to navigate to example.org in a browser.
   1. Does this bring up the hotel's gateway web page? Try pressing F5 to force the web page to reload.
3. If steps 1 and 2 above don't work and you have another web browser, try repeating both steps from a different web browser (so if you've used Chrome, try Internet Explorer, or the other way around).

Third, try to "Forget" the WiFi network on your computer, then try to re-establish the connection:

1. Click the Windows Start Menu at the bottom left corner of the screen.
2. Start typing Settings. Open Settings.
3. Navigate to Network & Internet > WiFi > Manage Known Networks. 
4. Click the WiFi network you wish to remove, then click Forget.
5. Try connecting to the third party WiFi network again. 

Finally, if none of these steps work, ask the hotel staff if there's an Ethernet connection/cable you can use in your room. If not, we recommend contacting the hotel's tech support group. If your phone has a hotspot capability, that is another good alternative.