Connecting to Wi-Fi that requires login

[tman1425]

I tried searching, but couldn't find much (maybe I was searching the wrong terms). In any event, there is a wifi network that I would like to connect my apple watch to. I do this on my phone by connecting to the network without a password or anything else - I just click the guest network. Once it connects, I receive a popup window asking me for the login information (it's basically like a guest wifi at hotels or airplanes).

Is it possible to connect an apple watch to this type of wifi network? My phone didn't seem to transfer the wifi network to my watch like it does for other networks, so I wasn't sure if there was something else I needed to do.

Thanks in advance!

 

[BarracksSi]

No.

In fact, this was an issue that Apple fixed within a couple weeks of the S3's release by disallowing the AW from even attempting to login to such a wifi network.

Let's say that it was allowed instead. How will the AW show the login screen -- the one that has boilerplate Terms & Conditions with a randomly placed button that says "I accept"? And maybe with a checkbox, too?

Not very well, that's how. That's the most superficial way of thinking about it, too.

Also, the AW needs to work all the time without your interaction, and the interaction should be absolutely minimal. It's okay for a phone to pop up a screen for you to log into a random public wifi network because, well, you pulled your phone out of your pocket for a reason. If the watch was sitting on your wrist, attempting to log onto a public wifi, it would just sit there and not do anything else -- because wifi takes priority over LTE (primarily to save on battery life) -- until you raised your wrist. Then you'd see a tiny little screen pop up, and hopefully you could zoom in to find the tiny button, and hopefully you don't have to enter any other information (like the wifi at Ikea stores, which requires you to enter your Ikea Family rewards card number), and then you get the backlog of texts from your friend who's been looking for you for twenty minutes.

 

[tman1425]

No.

In fact, this was an issue that Apple fixed within a couple weeks of the S3's release by disallowing the AW from even attempting to login to such a wifi network.

Let's say that it was allowed instead. How will the AW show the login screen -- the one that has boilerplate Terms & Conditions with a randomly placed button that says "I accept"? And maybe with a checkbox, too?

Not very well, that's how. That's the most superficial way of thinking about it, too.

Also, the AW needs to work all the time without your interaction, and the interaction should be absolutely minimal. It's okay for a phone to pop up a screen for you to log into a random public wifi network because, well, you pulled your phone out of your pocket for a reason. If the watch was sitting on your wrist, attempting to log onto a public wifi, it would just sit there and not do anything else -- because wifi takes priority over LTE (primarily to save on battery life) -- until you raised your wrist. Then you'd see a tiny little screen pop up, and hopefully you could zoom in to find the tiny button, and hopefully you don't have to enter any other information (like the wifi at Ikea stores, which requires you to enter your Ikea Family rewards card number), and then you get the backlog of texts from your friend who's been looking for you for twenty minutes.

Thanks for the quick reply. I remember Apple fixing this issue when the watch was released, but I wasn't sure if a new method of allowing this was created. I was trying to connect to the gym wifi which requires a login, but I'll just stick with my cellular data.

Thanks again!

 

[madeirabhoy]

does this mean that when in work, which has a hotel wifi system with login, am I best to leave wifi off and just use 3g?

 

[BarracksSi]

does this mean that when in work, which has a hotel wifi system with login, am I best to leave wifi off and just use 3g?

It’s fine now, as long as you’ve updated to the current watchOS. Like I said, Apple redid it to where the AW won’t try in vain to log onto such a network.

 

[MKChamp]

I wonder how difficult it would be to develop an app to manually log the watch to available unknown wifi networks. Do you think Apple puts a limitation on this ability to keep the non-cellular watch at a further disadvantage (limited ability to do wifi calling)?
A 3rd party app wouldn't be a drain on the watch. You could manually open it up and configure available networks...problem would be easily entering the password with a possible combination of numbers, letters (case sensitive), and special characters.
Has this already been discussed somewhere? I couldn't find it here...

 

[MrGuder]

I never connect my iPhone to public wifi, since I have unlimited LTE, so is it just as unsafe to connect your Apple Watch to an unsecured public wifi?

 

[MKChamp]

I never connect my iPhone to public wifi, since I have unlimited LTE, so is it just as unsafe to connect your Apple Watch to an unsecured public wifi?

I would think much less secure than connecting an iphone to the same network since the watch has much less private data than the phone itself.
I was thinking an app to connect to any network that requires login info regardless being private or public....with the exception of public connections that require web login/confirmation.

 

[BA2020]

I wonder how difficult it would be to develop an app to manually log the watch to available unknown wifi networks. Do you think Apple puts a limitation on this ability to keep the non-cellular watch at a further disadvantage (limited ability to do wifi calling)?
A 3rd party app wouldn't be a drain on the watch. You could manually open it up and configure available networks...problem would be easily entering the password with a possible combination of numbers, letters (case sensitive), and special characters.
Has this already been discussed somewhere? I couldn't find it here...

Usually it requires a web browser. Can you imagine a web browser on the watch? omg

 

[MKChamp]

Usually it requires a web browser. Can you imagine a web browser on the watch? omg

That's why I specified any network Other than those on my last post:
"I was thinking an app to connect to any network that requires login info regardless being private or public....with the exception of public connections that require web login/confirmation."

A web browser login would be horrific.