I am trying to setup a Surf SOHO MK3 WiFi WAN connection. I’m trying to connect to a WiFi hotspot that uses a webpage to log in with a given username and password. The network shows as OPEN and I can connect but I don’t see anyplace in the router profile to enter in the the username or password. I can not open a browser window to see the login screen either. I do get a DNS failure warning “Failed to receive DNS response from the health-check DNS servers for Wi-Fi WAN. But public DNS server lookup test via the WAN passed. So please check the DNS server settings.” I’m not sure what to change or how to connect to this hotspot.
Thanks for any help!
Hello @brightlion,
What your are connecting to is a form of Captive Portal, none of the Peplink (or any other manufactures equipment we have tested) allows you to connect your router to this when a web page login is required. Having said that, there is a work around that we use when travelling if we wish to do what you are requesting. Please take note of the warning below !
What you will require:
- Router capable of Wi-Fi WAN (such as certain Peplink SOHO and Pepwave MAX models)
- Suitable device with browser already connected to the Peplink Device (connected either by Cable or Wi-Fi on the routers LAN side)
Step #1
In the Wi-Fi WAN settings, for “Health Check Method” choose “Disabled”.
Step #2
Connected the from with the routers settings to the required open Wi-Fi network with the Captive Portal.
Step #3
On you device already connected to the LAN side of the router, open a new browser session go to a website such as your favourite search engines home page.
In theory you should now be presented with the Captive Portal web logon page, log in as per the instructions presented for the web page, this will authenticate your router onto the Wi-Fi.
Step #4
Leave your router on until you have finished or the session times out, if you need to reconnect, go back to Step #1.
WARNING: Several place now treat connecting a router to there Wi-Fi as breach of the Terms of Use/Service/Conditions/ect of the offered Wi-Fi.
At many locations now offering Wi-Fi (with out naming them) there are techniques to both detect and block people doing this in which case the login credentials being used (be it a username & password or social media credentials) and offending device (and any other device that then attempts to use those credentials going forward) are black listed & blocked until the user explains there actions to a the managers and submits a written application for the black listing to be removed. This blocking is easily done though through a mixture of techniques on the sites systems.
So check the terms of use before you do the above steps !!
Happy to Help,
Marcus 
Hi Marcus,
Thank you very much for your excellent response. I will try this solution once I have another network to connect to. I was able to do something similar by connecting to the network on WiFi using a Mac computer then turning on internet connection sharing on the Mac (WiFi in/Ethernet out) and them connecting the Mac's ethernet connection to the PepLink's WAN input. This allowed me to "rebroadcast" the original WiFi onto my local network and allow for multiple device connections. So far I haven't run into any blocks or blacklists but the network I tried to connect to wasn't very sophisticated.
Thanks for your help!
Bill
