In my experience both sides have problems connecting to public wifi often because public wifi is overloaded and all the available IPs are used. Having just travelled for work this last week, definitely the case at the airports, a few restaurants... though the hotel was absolutely amazing 😛. Usually one has to sit there after receiving an IP to wait for the authentication page to come up - and sometimes I never get it.
And the other posters are spot on. If you're on public wifi, use a VPN!