Misc Captive Portals - Is Opera the Solution?

[sabotage]

Maybe you have been at a Hotel with your Laptop, and tried to access the free wifi - and you are presented with a Disclaimer page, and asked to click 'continue'. This is called a 'Captive Portal'.

Currently, there is no way for the DS to connect to networks that use the Captive Portal software. If you try, your DS will find the service, but will be unable to successfully complete a connection to the NDS network. But, with the new Opera browser coming out, maybe we can first gain access with Opera, and once our MAC address is approved, switch it out and put in our game, and then we would be able to connect.

I have not done the research, but I pretty sure this is how captive portals work, because with a Laptop, once you have moved passed the disclaimer page, you can continue to access the network for the next few days, without ever seeing that page again. I think this is because your MAC address is temporarly added to the 'approved' list for a time.
I read at the official Nintendo forums, that you can actually ask the person who runs the Hotels servers, to add your MAC address manually, to allow you to connect with your DS.

I really hope with the release of Opera, that we can now connect to the growing number of networks using Captive Portal software. This past weekend, I stayed for a few days at a Holiday Inn Express. There was free wifi right in my room - nice strong signal. But, was unable to use it with my DS because of this very problem. (Confirmed they were using Captive Portal software by using a laptop). Sure, I could have went out and purchased the Nintendo Wifi USB adapter, and connected it to the laptop, but I have no need for it at home so couldn't justify the cost.

Any thoughts?

 

[Psyfira]

What an interesting idea...

I think the only way we'll know is for someone to try it. It all hinges on whether Opera users can sucessfully access the disclaimer page or not. I assume that when first trying to connect to the network a laptop is re-directed to the disclaimer page, so will DS Opera handle the redirect in the same way? Assuming your research about the role of MAC addresses in Captive Portal is correct, then I reckon your theory just might work.

Actually thinking about it, the PSP browser must work in a similar way. I wonder if any PSP users have managed to successfully access the internet through Captive Portal...?

 

[miniCooperS]

There are actually a couple different kinds of captive portals. The kind we use for the public WiFi where I work makes you agree to the captive portal page once per day and then registers your MAC address and allows you onto the network. Once that happened you could turn your DS on at any time for the rest of the day and be able to use the WiFi.

However some captive portals can be configured to make you agree to their terms at the beginning of each browser session, which would pose a problem for the DS.

We'll have to wait and see I think, but it is technically possible.

 

[Stonk]

although it is an old topic still want to respond and share my experience.
Actually because I travel so often and don't want to haul my laptop all the time I bought the DS Browser. Expecting that most hotels have free non-secure internet access so I could use the DS for occasional browsing etc.
Well, after having stayed at several hotels I could not connect to the internet at one of them. Big disappointment.
I think the captive portals of the hotels might have something to do with it. At home it works fine.
Haven't been in touch with either nintendo or Opera for a response but now I think I will.