Peplink Captive Portal Issue: Users Can Login but Cannot Access Internet

Product Discussion
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1

We are currently experiencing a captive portal issue affecting multiple vessels running Peplink routers.

Symptoms observed:

Users can successfully authenticate on the captive portal.

After clicking “Start Browsing”, users are either redirected back to the login page or receive no internet access.

Some users receive a “Quota Exceeded” error despite available bandwidth remaining.

The issue is occurring across multiple vessels and multiple devices, suggesting it is not isolated to a single router or user account.

Environment:

Captive Portal enabled

Starlink / maritime internet environment

Multiple Peplink routers affected

Has anyone experienced similar behaviour where users can authenticate successfully but are unable to obtain internet access, or are redirected back to the captive portal login page? Any recommendations for troubleshooting or known fixes would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance

3

@Ryan_Kristoffer

We urgently require support with a captive portal issue affecting multiple vessels and Peplink routers.

The number of affected users is increasing, and our Help Desk continues to receive additional tickets from vessels reporting the same or similar symptoms:

ticket that raised #26080308.

4

Same for us, a fire fighting day.

We see below issues:

  1. user account balance suddenly gone zero.
  2. they added a SIGN OUT button, but once pressed, the token turn to INVALID.
5

We are working on it and will provide an update via the ticket you have opened.

6

I would like to provide an update on our findings.

So far, this issue appears to affect Android devices only. We have not observed the same behavior on iPhones.

The Peplink team advised that the issue may be related to the “Prevent Immediate Closure of Captive Portal on Android” setting, which was configured at 60 seconds. We were recommended to reduce this value to 3 seconds or below.

After making the change, Android users were once again able to authenticate successfully and gain internet access. However, after several hours, the issue resurfaced and users began experiencing the same login loop behavior, where they were redirected back to the Captive Portal login page after successful authentication.

As an immediate workaround, we have completely disabled the “Prevent Immediate Closure of Captive Portal on Android” function. Following this change, affected users were able to access the internet again.

We hope this setting is the root cause, but it is worth noting that the original configuration had been in place for at least three years without any issues until yesterday. This raises concerns that there may have been a recent change or regression that is triggering the behavior.

We would appreciate further investigation from the Peplink team to identify the underlying cause and provide a permanent resolution. The impact on Android users is significant, and we are continuing to monitor the situation closely.

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