Idiotic behaviour with public Wifi

[Vertigo]

Going to rant because this bit me on the bum again the other day.

If you use a public Wifi system like O2 then, whenever the phone comes into range of a hotspot, it automatically connects to it. Of course you're then supposed to fill in the web-based login form before you can access the Internet.

The problem is, until you do that, you have no Internet access at all! The phone tries to use the Wifi as it's connected but there's no throughput as you've not signed in.

This has bitten me a few times, in pubs and the like. I'll be there for an hour or two before I pull my phone out and realise it's been stuck on the Wifi with no connectivity.

This is utterly hopeless. What iOS should do is, if it's been connected to an open Wifi access point but web-based authentication is required, then if you've not filled in the form and signed in within a few minutes, disconnect from the Wifi again and fall back to 3G.

Grrrrrr </rant>

 

[stealthgeek]

grinds my gears also, hate The Cloud for that - why cant it just remember my MAC?

 

[Morba]

Turn wifi off until you need it? sbsettings makes that rather easy and quick to do.

 

[p1RATE]

This would bother me if i actually managed to have a reliable 3g signal outside of the house. im usually surprised when it randomly connects after being out and about for hours and i get all my emails and whatsapp messages at once.

 

[InertProtocol]

Turn wifi off until you need it? sbsettings makes that rather easy and quick to do.

Yep, that's what i do. However NCSettings is my flavour.

 

[Vertigo]

Turn wifi off until you need it? sbsettings makes that rather easy and quick to do.

But it's hassle and I may well forget and end up at home or work using up my data allowance when I should be on Wifi.

 

[Westyfield2]

Yep, this has happened with iOS for years.

It *really* annoys me when my iPhone connects to a WiFi AP automatically but then has no internet on it (usually because a browser window needs to be opened to “Sign in” or “Accept the terms”), but because it’s connected to WiFi the stupid iPhone routes all internet traffic down that interface (Apps, Mail, etc) and it then gets nowhere… it never thinks to try cellular data instead.

Surely it can’t have been that hard for them to code it to ping apple.com, and if the response it gets back is not from the correct IP address (it's the login page) to kill the WiFi interface and go back to Cellular.

if ((host -t a apple.com) != 92.123.233.15){
 ifconfig wifi0 down
 }

 

[Deleted member 77746]

Not only that if.... you put your phone into sleep it turns wifi off and d/c's the connection and goes to 3G.

 

[Skyboat]

You know you can turn off Auto-Join on public Wi-Fi networks right?

 

[Vertigo]

I don't get that option!

 

[xxalxx]

I don't get that option!

Available for me on my iPhone 4 an the missus 4s, think we have had that turned on since day 1 as there is a open but not usable connection at the hotel not far from where we live.

 

[Deleted member 77746]

I don't get that option!

Settings > WiFi > Ask to Join Networks

 

[Nexus]

Was also going to point that feature out, it's been there for as long as I can remember. Never had the issue myself.

 

[Vertigo]

Does it only show up on networks which are available but which you're not currently connected to?

 

[Vertigo]

Settings > WiFi > Ask to Join Networks

Makes no difference - the Auto-Join option doesn't seem to appear for me, at least not on the networks I can see right now. Will test it out next time I'm in range of a public access point.