Problem Connecting to Public WiFi

[MiddKid]

This is a device-specific problem to my daughter's MacBook Air M2. Four other MacBooks in the family (mine, my wife's, two other daughters) work without this issue.

My daughter uses her Air M2 at home and at school with zero issues. The problem comes any time she tries to connect to a public wifi that has a window pop up for a passcode, agreement, etc. The window always pops up, it stays blank, then an error pops up that says "a problem occurred the webpage couldn't be loaded." We were out of town over the weekend and this issue happened on the hotel network, a coffee house network, the airport network, and the guest network of a college. Many troubleshooting pages I see are about not being able to even connect...her's connects (the window pops up immediately) but it fails to load.

I found a workaround for her which is to go to a browser and type 1.1.1.1. When she does that, the approval/agreement page opens up right away and she's off and running with no issues. But how can I fix needing to do this workaround?

AirM2 is currently running Sequoia, but was having this problem on Sonoma too. As mentioned at the start, all other MacBooks in the family work fine at these same locations.

Thanks for any advice!

 

[Grumpus]

I would try turning off Limit IP address tracking in the Wi-Fi settings for the network(s) that are showing the problem. Also, check the DNS settings for the network. For "captive portal" networks you don't want to specify DNS server addresses, but rather you need to be getting DNS settings via DHCP.

Not sure what you mean by a "pop up." In my use of captive portal networks (in hotels) I've never seen a pop up. What happens is that a first attempt at visiting a web site will cause an authorization page to be displayed in the browser instead, exactly as in your example of typing 1.1.1.1 in the browser address bar. This could just be my limited experience, I don't use Wi-Fi in coffee shops and such. Can you post a screenshot of the pop up?