Has anyone else had this problem with public Wi-Fi where your phone connects to the network, but the sign-in page never appears?
I'm talking about Wi-Fi at places like hotels, airports, workplaces, restaurants or other public networks where you're normally supposed to get a page asking you to sign in or accept the terms.
The device connects to Wi-Fi but then says “No internet” or “Connected without internet,” and there's no sign-in notification or page.
I've seen people mention trying things like forgetting and reconnecting to the network, disabling Private DNS, changing the MAC address setting, turning off mobile data, or manually opening a normal HTTP website to trigger the login page.
Has anyone found a reliable way to force the public Wi-Fi login page to appear when this happens?
Also, if you've experienced it, what phone/device were you using?
This is usually called a captive portal problem. The Wi-Fi connection itself can be established, but the network won't provide normal internet access until its sign-in/terms page has been completed.
If the sign-in page doesn't appear automatically, I'd try these in order:
1. Disconnect and reconnect to the Wi-Fi
After reconnecting, check your notifications or Wi-Fi settings for something like “Sign in to network.”
2. Open a normal HTTP page
Try opening:
Because it uses HTTP rather than HTTPS, the public network may be able to redirect it to its login page. This is still being recommended for captive-portal troubleshooting in current support discussions.
3. Temporarily disable Private DNS/VPN
If you're using Android Private DNS, a VPN, proxy, ad-blocking DNS or another custom DNS configuration, temporarily disabling it is worth testing.
4. Turn off mobile data temporarily
Then reconnect to Wi-Fi and try loading the login page again.
5. Forget the network
Forget the Wi-Fi network completely, reconnect and see whether the captive portal is detected again.
6. Try another browser
Interestingly, one Pixel user experiencing this in June 2026 reported that another browser finally triggered the public Wi-Fi sign-in page after their previous attempts didn't.
7. Check the MAC/privacy setting
If your device allows you to switch between a randomized/private MAC address and the device MAC for that particular network, this can also be worth testing. There are reports where changing this setting caused the captive portal to appear again.
Don't enter sensitive account credentials into a page simply because it appears after joining public Wi-Fi. Make sure it actually belongs to the network/provider you're trying to access.
If you're having this problem, post your phone/device model, Android/iOS version, and whether http://neverssl.com triggers the login screen. That may help determine whether everyone is seeing the same captive-portal issue.