Macbook WiFi won't connect to public wifi hotspots, but works fine otherwise

Question

I've looked at other posts with similar keywords, but none of them seemed to apply quite right.

(I have a Macbook purchased in June 2008)

I am able to use my home wifi, the wifi at my mom's house, and even my neighbor's unsecured connection.

However, every public wifi spot I've tried to work at fails. I AM ABLE TO "connect" to the network (Airport shows I am connected), but when I open a web browser I get a "Not connected to the internet" message. This has now occurred at four different locations. (Also, at one of them, I tried to connect with my iPod touch, and i was able to get online without issue.)

Also, when I first bought this macbook, I did not have this issue.

Any helpful suggestions? Thanks!

Solution 1

Do you have a static IP address assigned to your Airport interface for some reason? How about statically assigned DNS numbers? If that is the case, it might be a coincidence that the assigned address information is compatible with the neighbors's and mom's networks.

Try making a new network location. Go to System Preferences >> Network pane. At the top there is a pull down menu for Locations. Pull it down and select Edit Locations. Make a new location named Test. Click on the Apply button in the lower right.

This will give you a completely new network configuration with all interfaces set for DHCP. You may always change the location back to whatever the old one was if you need to.

Solution 2

I had the same problem.

The key for me was that I had a custom DNS server configured. In my case it was googles (8.8.8.8). I remember doing this some time ago for whatever reason.

Anyway, the public hotspots don't seem to like this. After removing the custom DNS server I was able to connect fine on public hotspots.

Comments

[fideli]

When you connect to these public wifi spots, do you get an IP address? Are they the type of wifi spots that require a sign-in in the browser after you connect?

[JamEngulfer]

Oh sure. The mobile app for The Cloud opens that link in the browser (with a few more arguments) when you select the option to install an automatic connection profile. I stripped out the token and MAC address arguments and it seemed to work. The website itself is just a basic page with a "download profile now" button. If anyone (rightfully) has suspicions about this, the page is in https, so you can look at the certificate and verify that it's legit.