Overview
This article addresses an issue where macOS users with Sophos Home installed may, intermittently, be unable to sign in to public or guest Wi-Fi Hotspots using a captive portal, such as those in restaurants, hotels, coffee shops, airports and in-flight Wi-Fi on airplanes.
Trying to log into a guest Wi-Fi may not display the login portal properly, preventing access.
The message "A problem occurred. The web page couldn't be loaded." might appear.
What is happening
On macOS 12 (Monterey) and lower, intermittently, the Guest Wi-Fi Captive Portal may not load properly. Apple released a fix for this issue in macOS 13.1 (Ventura) but has not provided a fix for earlier versions. Users experiencing this issue should upgrade to the latest version of macOS Ventura.
On macOS Ventura, a similar issue occurs, intermittently, when using some in-flight Wi-Fi services. This does not affect Wi-Fi hotspots in restaurants, hotels, coffee shops and airports.
Sophos and Apple are currently investigating this issue. If you are using macOS 13.1 (Ventura) or later, and are experiencing this issue when using an in-flight Wi-Fi service, the workaround options below are available
What to do
Option 1: Use Captive Portal Mode
Starting with Sophos Home version 10.5.0, we have introduced Captive Portal Mode. Users can select that option to allow the Mac to connect to Public Wi-Fi by following these steps:
- 1 - Click on the Sophos Home Shield> ... > Enable Captive Portal Mode
- 2 - Use your fingerprint or password to proceed
- 3- Connect to Public Wi-Fi
- 4- Turn off Captive Portal Mode via the Sophos Home Shield (If not manually turned off, it will automatically shut off after 5 minutes)
Option 2: Use Apple's hotspot detection website
This should allow you to connect to the portal.
Option 3. Access the login via page via Safari,using terminal
- Open Finder. Search for and launch Terminal
- Type the following command: open -a "Safari" http://google.com
- This will launch Safari and should display the Wi-Fi login page.
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