I just use connectivitycheck.gstatic.com/generate_204. The URL is a bit long, but I have it bookmarked.
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NeverSSL
61–70 of 212 posts
Re: NeverSSL
#62Nice, I use http://perdu.com usually
Re: NeverSSL
#63I was always using ya.ru
Easier to type and they never plan to add HSTS because of that reason.
Re: NeverSSL
#64I don't get it. What does it do stop redirecting users to the https version?
There is no (working!) https version of the domain. I own/maintain neverssl.com and I'll be doing my best to make sure that it can never poison the intended experience. I use it myself.
Basically, it's designed to be easy to remember, and over time I'll deploy whatever "Nope, really use HTTP" workarounds are available as TLS-by-default, and maybe even DANE, gain traction.
The difference between neverssl.com and others is just that "guarantee" and the slightly tongue-in-cheek text that tries to make it clear to users what's going on.
Actually right now I'm on a plane, between Newark and Seattle, and just typed it in to log in ... only to see it featured on HackerNews. Mind Blown. I'm coming back from 7 days spent with other implementors of TLS, and it's something I stay up to date on. That's it.
It's pretty weird that example.com does not use https:// , I expect it will in the near-future. Part of its job is to set a good ... example.
Re: NeverSSL
#65I don't get it. What does it do stop redirecting users to the https version?
It doesn't. It loads a page that's HTTP only, so that the wifi provider's login page can be displayed without an SSL error.
Re: NeverSSL
#66Earlier quoted context omitted.
> why there isn't a better solution... There is a better solution: No captive portals.
What would you suggest for the case of someone wanting payment for the connection? Like it or not, a lot of places do that.
What would you suggest if someone wants payment for a water tab? Ever seen that?
I think we should move towards considering Internet access as a general service that people make available for their guests/customers.
Re: NeverSSL
#67I don't get it. What does it do stop redirecting users to the https version?
It doesn't. It loads a page that's HTTP only, so that the wifi provider's login page can be displayed without an SSL error.
> so that the wifi provider's login page can be displayed without an SSL error
AHA! That's it. Now it makes sense.
Re: NeverSSL
#68It's sad, because these are the kinds of things that confuse the hell out of "common folk" and explaining requires explaining HTTPS, HSTS, how captive WiFi portals work, and then ultimately, why there isn't a better solution... which maybe doesn't have a great answer. I feel like this "workaround" site is designed to draw attention to the problem at hand more than it is meant to be useful for the task at hand?
This isn't generally a problem on smartphones and tablets because they can usually detect captive portals and prompt the user appropriately.
Do you travel? I often have problems and am running out of non-https sites to test against. Best I can figure is that they're whitelisting certain domains so the captive portal detection isn't triggered. I think this is so certain things like iMessage or email work (hence, whitelisting apple.com), but blocking out the rest of the web.
I don't travel often (Christmas and maybe once or twice a year outside of that), but it's when I encounter this. It's very frustrating because I'll be walking, pass a store I've previously connected to Wifi, and suddenly lose Internet, then hunt for a website to get the portal to pop up.
I'm annoyed that captive portals have been commonly using DNS hacking since 802.11b and I'm surprised a better solution hasn't been standardized. I have no idea where in the stack it should go (DHCP, wireless standards, or whatever) but DNS hacking drives me nuts.
Re: NeverSSL
#69example.com works as well. it doesnt redirect to https://example.com
http://captive.apple.com/ also. That's what Apple devices use when trying to present the login for a captive network.
My iPhone constantly misses captive portals and I have to hunt for a non-ssl website. I can't say if it's 5% or 30% of networks, but enough to be frustrating. Does anyone know if it is common for apple.com to be whitelisted for iMessage or something?
Re: NeverSSL
#70Not sure about Apple, but isn't this automatically handled by Android these days? Every time it connects to a network it pings http://google.com/generate_204 and if the response code isn't 204 then it should prompt you to open the browser to the redirected URL.
Apple has been using http://captive.apple.com/ for years. Their UI for it has gotten a lot better, too. Previous versions you'd get a popup, but you could dismiss it and it would disconnect from the network (which sucks if you're /trying/ to connect to a network without Internet). Now it has a few more options and ways to get back to the popup--but I still have issues with certain networks.