Captive portal authorization

xttwo2 · January 2022

Since I bought my laptop in 2017; I've mainly used what some of you might be familiar with. Xfinity (Comcast) WiFi passes. You had multiple choices of an hour of wifi; a day (24 hrs) a week - which is what I most often used. Or a month. Love it. Easy efficient. No need to bother with excess equipment or connectivity issues. Then a funny thing happened. Xfinity decided to get greedy. Doing away with wifi passes and giving users an ultimatum to become permanent members by signing up for long term WiFi access and purchase (rent) equipment. Bummer. I said: adios Xfinity and went the "wifi hotspot through my phone" routine. No problems up until now. Today I tried logging on my laptop through my phone and an indicator pops up "captive portal authorization". Up until now I've never had to log in by a separate webpage like for the Xfinity wifi passes. It was just connect and go. But this is a TracFone phone I've been using. Prepaid minutes and data. The company line is "we don't support mobile phone tethering blah blah blah"

So I'm guessing with this notification I'm seeing now on my laptop; the proverbial jig is up and I'm essentially shut out from web use through my phone data.

I've done a few searches on the web about the issue and it all basically leads back to the idea that there's is no lost connectivity problem on my end with my laptop or settings. It's my "provider" meaning TracFone must have done what they have to cut me off.

If that's the case. Fine.
If anyone knows a work around; by all means send a reply.

Thanks 👍

billsey · January 2022

Yeah, Verizon does the same thing with their phones. It forces you to purchase their tethering package in order to use the service.

billsey · January 2022

Yeah, Verizon does the same thing with their phones. It forces you to purchase their tethering package in order to use the service.

xttwo2 · January 2022

Update: in the last two hours. I sent a message (tweet) to TracFone in which their reply was "the company line" (TracFone does not support mobile tethering etc etc)

However a funny thing has occurred. The original tweet reply has apparently been edited. Now the tweet reads like a standard generic response "we apologize for any inconvenience caused; please contact us for further support and assistance" blah blah blah

Makes me think a supervisor had a little talk with the person providing social media responses and was told to make immediate changes.

Now I'm thinking #1 I should have taken a screenshot of the Twitter reply. Either the original reply was a sketchy legal liability thing or this re edited new one is to invite me (the customer) to engage their technical support as a CYA retention effort.

If so it's interesting because I definitely feel the "switch to AT&T; T-Mobile" vibe right about now. Though I find it hard and unlikely. Since 2005 I've been using dirt cheap prepaid phones. Only recently trying to get away with linking mobile tethering when it seems like I can't anymore.

Going back to contract phone services isn't all that inviting as one might think. Regardless of whether or not I'll have problem free wifi or mobile data connection with my laptop. 🤔

xttwo2 · February 2022

Update #2 went on the TracFone website; seems they rolled out a $40 dollar 8G plan month to month with as they say "hotspot capabilities" I'm like - ok so what happened to the whole TracFone doesn't support mobile tethering thing. What exactly do they think users will use hotspot capability for? Needless to say; yeah; I bit the bullet and signed up another cellphone account just to use for this. I finally have my laptop usage back. kinda felt naked and shut out of life the last few weeks.