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Kartoffeln

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 22, 2019
21
0
Hi - before Catalina, whenever hotel room wifi would expire after 1 day, I would be presented with the hotel login window to renew the wifi connection. This no longer happens in Catalina. In order to reconnect to the internet, I have to restart each day, even though wifi says it is connected. Any fix? thanks!
 

PeterIsleOfMan

macrumors newbie
Nov 20, 2019
2
0
Yes, same here. My issue is connecting to WiFi at work. There is a splash screen which you have to renew periodically: before Catalina I could make it reappear by disconnecting then reconnecting the WiFi, but now as you say I can only reconnect by re-starting the MacBook, which is annoying if you are in the middle of working on something.
But I have good news: I have found the workaround. Back up your MacBook, wipe the HDD clean including all the partitions and the file system, reinstall the High Sierra OS from 2 years ago, reinstall all your programs and data and Bob's your uncle, all sorted, mine's a pint. Seriously, that is exactly what I have done. I tried Catalina for a week, did my best to get on with it, but the WiFi problem, plus half my apps not working, plus it bricked my iPod Shuffle, plus that ridiculous thing it does trying to edit all your photos, convinced me that Catalina is a load of sh*te and I am better off without it.
 

Kartoffeln

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 22, 2019
21
0
Last week, it randomly just started working for me in hotel rooms again without having to restart. No idea why - I hadn't done anything differently. Maybe after enough restarts it will work for you, too!
 

ZMacintosh

macrumors 65816
Nov 13, 2008
1,448
709
are you on 10.15.1?

update to that, otherwise try: captive.apple.com

or in terminal use the following code to launch the captive network assistant
Code:
/System/Library/CoreServices/Captive\ Network\ Assistant.app/Contents/MacOS/Captive\ Network\ Assistant
 

Kartoffeln

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 22, 2019
21
0
I am not yet! I was planning on updating to see if that would do the trick, but it ended up working on its own before that
 

Hikerdave

macrumors newbie
Feb 21, 2017
14
5
San Diego
Hi - before Catalina, whenever hotel room wifi would expire after 1 day, I would be presented with the hotel login window to renew the wifi connection. This no longer happens in Catalina. In order to reconnect to the internet, I have to restart each day, even though wifi says it is connected. Any fix? thanks!
I believe that if you go to your network system preference, click on WiFi then advanced, click on the wifi name you are having problems with, click the - button, click OK and Apply, then select the network again you should get the portal again.
 

Tomb01

macrumors 6502
Jan 6, 2009
482
49
Colleyville, TX
I believe that if you go to your network system preference, click on WiFi then advanced, click on the wifi name you are having problems with, click the - button, click OK and Apply, then select the network again you should get the portal again.

Sigh, this used to work for me before Catalina. Sadly now it does not and I am in the 'reboot' situation to get the login popup from the hotel wifi to show up. The other thing that sometimes worked was to make sure you did not have a DNS server identified, so that you were sure of getting the hotel DNS, but that no longer has any affect either. I saw in one of my google searches a suggestion that connecting to the network router (identified in the network preferences tcp/ip settings) might work, and I think the suggestion about typing in captive.apple.com might also have some merit.

Hearing that other Catalina users are experiencing the same problem is annoying. My wife has refused to upgrade to it, and does not have this issue in our travels this month.
 
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apulk

macrumors newbie
Aug 8, 2008
15
0
Sewickley, PA
Exact same issue -- now on my 4th support call with Apple -- no acknowledgement that there is an issue and they keep saying they have never heard of this issue before. On the first call I was actually told by the rep that they places I mentioned had to upgrade their wifi to work with Catalina -- I said I use Starbucks, McDonalds, Westin, Marriott, Hilton, Atlanta Airport, Pittsburgh Airport, public library, Panera among others almost daily -- looking like about 40k access points need upgraded per Apple to work with their messed up OS.
 

PeterIsleOfMan

macrumors newbie
Nov 20, 2019
2
0
I think the Catalina fiasco is an example of Silicon Valley geeks living in a reality bubble which is insulated from the real world. I understand the theory behind it: move everyone from 32 bit to 64 bit applications and an improved file system so everything (in theory) runs faster and better. However, if the result in reality is that things run slower, less well or not at all, then there is a degree of cognitive dissonance between the geeky theory and the reality that most people live in.
 

Kartoffeln

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 22, 2019
21
0
Quick update here... I last posted that it started working for me. A couple weeks later, the issue reappeared. Then a couple days ago, it started working again. Can't find a cause or pattern just yet.
 
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