topic Re: Can't authenticate on hotspot in Mobile Data

Can't authenticate on hotspot

Bowl4 — Sun, 22 Sep 2024 14:21:18 GMT

Hi,

I can connect to a ee hotspot and authenticate done with my mobile. However, when I connect with my laptop, I can't load the authentication page in my browser to login.

The network info page in Windows shows that I'm connected and has eg dns address etc.

I phoned earlier and the help desk said it was bad luck eg network too busy. If that's the case, then why can my partner and I connect and authenticate with our mobiles?

Re: Can't authenticate on hotspot

Lesley_W — Mon, 23 Sep 2024 10:01:11 GMT

Hi @Bowl4

Welcome to our community.

I'm sorry you're having trouble connecting your laptop. Can I just check, is it this Wi-Fi hotspot you are using or something else Get public WiFi access | Find WiFi hotspots | EE WiFi ?

Lesley

Re: Can't authenticate on hotspot

Bowl4 — Mon, 23 Sep 2024 10:55:14 GMT

Hi Lesley
It's a regular (ie not say a coffee shop) wifi hotspot. I'm a BT broadband
customer

Re: Can't authenticate on hotspot

Lesley_W — Mon, 23 Sep 2024 13:05:18 GMT

Thanks for confirming that @Bowl4

I'd recommend speaking to the team again and letting them know you can connect with other devices, so they can get to the bottom of this.

Lesley

Re: Can't authenticate on hotspot

jon_p — Wed, 09 Oct 2024 11:48:40 GMT

I have the same issue. Is anyone looking at this in EE?

@Bowl4did you manage to resolve with Customer Services?

I will try a tablet to see if I can narrow it down, as laptops certainly seem to be an issue, maybe anything except mobile browsers aren't authorised to access the captive portal page...No desktop version of the captive portal webpage...?

I presume you got the same "Cannot Connect" response from your laptop WiFi settings screen?

Whilst not ideal, and obvious, the only way I did get the laptop to work was tether through the mobile 😉

Re: Can't authenticate on hotspot

Bowl4 — Wed, 09 Oct 2024 12:42:48 GMT

@jon_p I still hadnt managed to connect after a couple of days. I went somewhere else and it worked fine then I returned to the problem hotspot a week later and it was OK. Whilst I appreciate that they're are reasons for it not working, I don't buy it when I was able to connect without problem on three other devices.

I use the hotspot in question every weekend and this is the first time I've had this problem for several months. The first time it happened, ee acknowledged a problem and fixed it but this time I feel I was fobbed off. The long and short of it is that the hotspots are handy but I wouldn't trust them for anything important like working away from home (or at least have a contingency) .

Re: Can't authenticate on hotspot

Hengy — Sat, 22 Mar 2025 09:37:14 GMT

Hi,

Has anyone ever got to the bottom of this? I have just had the same problem, trying to use an EE wifi hotspot - working fine if i connect using my phone and it lets me login in using my ee credentials. But, when i try with my laptop (windows 11) it connects using wifi, but then no login portal, just says connected no internet. i tried entering various versions of the https://ee-wifi.ee.co.uk/home address to get to the login page, all gave dns errors, on chrome and edge. tried rebooting, clearing cache etc no joy.

Re: Can't authenticate on hotspot

Ali_A — Sat, 22 Mar 2025 12:31:39 GMT

Hi @Hengy

Which browser are you using on your laptop?

Are you able to try using an alternative browser?

Ali

Re: Can't authenticate on hotspot

jon_p — Sat, 22 Mar 2025 12:33:46 GMT

Hi @Hengy ,

This is working OK for me now (tested on neighbours broadband), but don't use a great deal it was intermittent for a time and I think it's variable, although no idea what on.

I use Windows 11 laptop with Firefox browser and attempting to connect to Wi-Fi hotspot in loptop Wi-Fi widget launches Firefox app at the default firefox captive portal page (Firefox portal detection), which then re-directs immeidately to EE Captive Portal and allows login. May want to try FF and use the captive portal detection page (although it should already).

As I say seemed at the time to be variable depending on hotspot, time of day etc, so can only suggest trying same. At a pinch, connect mobile and tether. Apologies nothing more useful - hopefuly one day EE / BT will build an app that manages login and credential storing (like the old BT Wi-Fi mobile app used to do for BT-WiFi!)

Re: Can't authenticate on hotspot

EthanGauss — Sun, 15 Mar 2026 18:09:04 GMT

My one is worse, I can use the username and password to connect on my laptop, but the same information will show an error when I try to connect using my phone.

Re: Can't authenticate on hotspot

Leanne_T — Tue, 17 Mar 2026 08:32:46 GMT

Morning @EthanGauss

Thanks for coming to the community.

If you're connecting to EE WiFi, could you try restarting the phone and try connecting again to see if this works.

If you're still unable to connect, please get in touch and the team will get this looked into for you.

Leanne.