Linux Mint: How To Enable Automatic Captive Portal Checks
Access to Wi-Fi networks is usually restricted in one of three ways. The most common method is to use a password, but you may also have networks where network providers have hard-coded credentials to access their networks via a SIM card. Another method that many free Wi-Fi networks use is called “Captive Portal”.
Captive portals allow you to connect to a network without restrictions, but instead capture and redirect your internet traffic to a login page. From there you usually need to create an account to use the service.
One problem with captive portals is that they cannot redirect traffic to HTTPS encrypted sites. Due to the large and growing number of websites that use HTTPS to secure communications, this may be a problem with your internet connection. To make it easier for users to connect, many operating systems run periodic and small automatic checks to see if they are stuck behind a captive portal, and then open a login page for the user.
The intention is to increase usability, but some users may have some privacy concerns about these controls. To support those users who may be concerned about privacy, Linux Mint allows you to disable the Internet connection check used to determine if a captive portal exists.
To enable or disable connection checks for captive portals in Linux Mint, press the Super key, type “Privacy” and press Enter.
Tip: The “Super” key is the name many Linux distributions use to refer to the Windows key or the Apple “Command” key, avoiding any risk of trademark issues.
Press the Super key, type “Privacy” and press Enter.
In your privacy settings, you need to enable or disable the “Check connections” setting to enable or disable captive portal checks. If you choose to disable this setting, you may experience difficulties connecting to the captive portal network.
To enable or disable captive portal checks, enable or disable the “Check Connections” setting.