Redirect for HTTPS connections

If an unauthenticated client attempts to access an HTTPS website via an interface operated by the Public Spot, the connection request is redirected to the Public Spot gateway itself, which then presents its login page to the user (as is also the case with HTTP). Usually, the user's browser displays a certificate warning, because the name or IP of the requested website is different from the name or IP address of the Public Spot. To prevent this and the increased load on the Public Spot from the HTTPS/TLS connections, this setting allows you to prevent HTTPS connections from being established for unauthenticated clients.

Note: Once the client is authenticated, redirection is stopped and the client can establish any HTTP or HTTPS connection.

Modern clients carry out a "captive portal detection" via HTTP. The client attempts to access a certain URL via HTTP to check for the presence of a login page (from the Public Spot or other solutions). This mechanism is not affected by turning off the HTTPS redirect, since detection is usually via HTTP.

However, if unauthenticated WLAN clients should not perform connect requests over HTTP, this ineffective HTTPS redirect would place unnecessary load on the Public Spot gateway. For this reason it is possible to disable this HTTPS redirect. In this case, the user's browser displays a blank page.

In LANconfig, you configure the HTTPS redirect under Public Spot > Server > Operational settings.

To enable the HTTPS redirect, activate the option Accept TLS connections from unauthenticated clients. This option is disabled by default.