Have you ever logged onto public WiFi, but when you try to open a web page that you already had open, it just won’t load?

Sometimes this is because the WiFi is simply not working. In cases like that, it’s probably better to just pull out a book and read, instead of fighting a hopeless battle with bad WiFi. 🙃

Other times, however, the WiFi is actually indeed working, but it’s waiting for you to log in to it.


You’ve quite likely logged onto coffee shop or airport WiFi like this in the past. A page will load with branding for whatever company is hosting the WiFi network. There is usually a place where they ask you to put in your email address or phone number, and then you click something like “Get Free Wifi”. After that, you can use the internet normally.

Many devices are good at recognizing situations like this, where the internet isn’t accessible because the WiFi needs to be logged into first. In these cases, your device will usually give you a notification instructing you to log in, and directing you to the log-in page.

However, sometimes devices don’t recognize when there’s a need log in in order to get online, so they won’t give such a notification.

Or, sometimes I’ve found that I can accidentaly dismiss the notification that would otherwise redirect me to the log-in page.


In cases like this, if you try to open a web page that you’ve visited before, it will often not load, and not send you to the WiFi’s log-in page.

This is because your web browser will see that the network is trying to redirect you to a page that is on a different server from the one that originally hosted the page you were on, and it will stop that redirection to prevent a phishing attack.


If you ever end up in such a situation, there is a very easy way that you can get to the log in page.

All you need to do is open your web browser and go to the following web address.

2.2.2.2


This will trigger the network to redirect you to the proper log-in page, from which you will be able to get online. Because 2.2.2.2 is the address of a server that you’ve never been to before, your browser’s anti-phishing features won’t be activated.

You’ll then be able get to the network’s log-in page, and get online (hopefully) without a another problem! 😊