Connection to mifi hotspot hangs at "Sign in to Wifi Network"

[whitenack]

I don't know if this is an Android issue or a mifi hotspot issue or if this is just the way it is supposed to be.

I recently purchased a mifi 500 hotspot from Freedompop. I have setup the wifi login and password and have connected my phone to the hotspot.

Most of the time, when I connect to the hotspot, a popup notification will appear saying "Sign in to Wifi Network". During this time, I will get an Exclamation Point (!) beside the wifi icon, and there is no connection to the internet. Sometimes, after a few seconds, my device will go on and connect anyway, and the notification will go away. Most of the time, however, it just sits there until I tap on the notification. When I tap on the notification, I am taken to a blank white screen that looks like it is trying to sign into the network, but it never does. There are dots in the top right corner that give me the choice to either "block the connection" or "connect to the network as is". When I click to connect to the network as is, some of the time the connection is made and I am able to connect to the internet with no problems. Sometimes, however, it connects for a second or two but then loses that connection and it goes back to the wifi icon with an Exclamation Point. When this happens, there is no solution other than completely starting over, either by rebooting the hotspot or turning off/on wifi radios, or both.

This occurs not only with my Nexus 5 (stock 5.1.1), but also on my other devices running android versions earlier than Lollipop. Is there a setting I am missing or some other tweak I need to make, or is this just the way all mifi hotspots work? I was hoping the connection to the hotspot would be as seamless as connecting to my wifi router at home, or connecting to the mobile hotspots generated from your phone.

 

[Golfdriver97]

Have you tried forgetting the network and reconnecting to it?

 

[whitenack]

Have you tried forgetting the network and reconnecting to it?

Thanks for the reply. Yes, I've tried forgetting and reconnecting. I have also gone into the mifi settings to see if there is some security setting that I am leaving unchecked or incorrectly set. I'm not finding a pattern at the moment. I'll keep testing and see if I can find the common denominator.

 

[whitenack]

I tested some things over lunch. On the pre-5.x device, the connection could be made successfully, consistently, automatically, but I still get the popup asking me to log into the wifi network. If I tap "cancel", it disconnects me from the network. If I hit "OK" it opens up my web browser but since I am already connected, there is nothing else I need to do.

On my Nexus 5, about half the time it connected without any issue. I still get the "connect to wifi network" popup initially, but it disappears when it connects. The other half the time it connected, gave me a (!) in the wifi icon, and kept a mobile data connection open on my phone. At this point, if I go into my mobile data settings and turn mobile data off, it connects immediately. I can also tap on the "connect to wifi network" notification and then say to use the network "as is" and the notification will disappear and it will connect. There were a handful (maybe 10%) of times, where I will get exclamation points on both the wifi icon and the mobile data icon, and at this point there is no solution, other than to completely disconnect from everything and start over.

I'd like to focus on this "Connect to wifi network" popup and why it is happening. I'm not finding much on the internet about it. But the fact that I have to select the option to connect to the network "as is" makes me think there is something wrong with the network that android doesn't trust?

 

[LeoRex]

Try opening a browser window and go to a link.

I've found that the 'Sign on...." notification doesn't always render the page correctly. What it is supposed to do is launch a UI that brings you to the challenge page to log in. Happens at my work all the time. I just have to launch Chrome and log in there.

 

[whitenack]

Thanks LeoRex. But, should that popup even be happening when I connect to my hotspot? This isn't a public network or a hotel wifi or anything. Do all mobile hotspots require a two-step login or can they work just like your wifi router at home, where it automatically connects and authenticates without any interaction from the user?

 

[LeoRex]

No... hotspots only require two-stage when they are set that way... While you COULD have it enabled on your home router, its not common and most routers probably don't even have the option.

There aren't many public hotspots that let you in without any sort of challenge thrown your way.... most all require you to at least agree to their TOS.

 

[willmon22]

Sounds like something might not be being typed in correctly. I know that this maybe something simple such as the password not being typed in correctly. But this has happened to me a few times as well. Also another thing could be the type of encryption as well. As I have done this before where the router said tkip or aes and it didn't agree with each other. So then I set aes or tkip individually between the two and instead of it going right back to the connect to wifi network prompt as you have been getting usually means only a few different things. Those 2 things are the only things I can think of right now. Other than doing a hard reset on the mifi and trying to reset the password to the wifi by connecting directly to the mifi if possible and then just getting directly into it to set the settings necessary instead of the password that is built into the mifi which is never a good thing to do. I am always thinking that people would come into my house to try and get a password on a device they know is usually on the bottom of the device. And of course either way they would still get what they wanted if they knew what they are doing but it doesn't mean that you wouldn't know that they were on it if you didn't monitor it.