How to disable OS3.0's wifi auto-login feature?

[kalx]

Background on the issue:
My university normally takes you to a login page before you can use the wireless internet.

With OS3.0, Apple introduced a new auto-login feature for wireless networks. When you join a network, the OS tries to to fetch a test page (specifically, this one). If it gets something other than the expected test data (like a school or hotspot login page), a view pops up showing the login page. The view has a Cancel button on it, but if you click on it, the phone DISCONNECTS you from the network. This is a HUGE problem for many reasons. First, even if I login, the iphone doesn't recognize it and nothing happens, I'm forced to click cancel and the iPhone disconnects me from the network. Thus, my school's network has become completely unusable on OS3.0. Second, many users connect to a wifi network then try to join a VPN, but this autologin business keeps disconnecting them from the network all together.

The current quick fix:
There's an app called Boingo on the appstore. Simply installing this app and running it once DISABLES the autologin feature across your entire phone. The app itself is some subscription based hotspot service - you don't have to purchase the service, just install/run app/quit app.


I'm interested in HOW Boingo accomplishes this? I offer an app that automatically logs into my university's wifi, but because of this problem, it no longer works on OS3.0. If you install Boingo, then my app will work fine. I'm not sure how Boingo does it. There should be NO WAY to change iPhone OS preferences using an app right?

Can anyone shed some light on this?

- kalx

[kalx]

Bump

Anyone have any info on this?

[kalx]

Bump

[web20devxer]

Looks to me like you need to create a preferences file. Search the forum . There are several to do this . Good luck.

[kalx]

Just wanted to post an update in case anyone else was looking for a solution to this problem.

Apple calls this autologin feature Captive Network Support (CNS). In my original post, I mentioned that installing the Boingo app seemed to disable this feature on the OS. It looks like Apple has a CNS Exception list that you can get your app added to if needed. If an app on the list is installed on the user's iPhone, the autologin functionality will be disabled.

I just submitted a bug report to Apple to get my own app added to the exception list. The problem is, the exception list is part of the OS, so it won't take effect until the next OS update. Poor design in my opinion on Apple's part. They should provide a simple On/Off option in settings

Anyway, I got this information from the forum for another app called BlueSocket Authenticator. The creator of that app emailed Apple and got the reply below:

I'm responding to your question about disabling Wi-Fi autologin (aka Captive Network Support, or CNS) on iPhone OS 3.0 and later. As you're probably aware, there is no good way to disable CNS on current versions of iPhone OS. iPhone OS disables CNS when certain well-known hotspot applications are installed, but this list of applications is hard-wired into the OS itself.

There are both long-term and short-term considerations here:

o short term -- In the short term iPhone OS engineering has agreed to add developers like yourself to the CNS exception list. You can request this by filing a bug.

Make sure you include the name of your product and its bundle identifier.

Please send me the bug number so that I can associate it with this incident.

Any such change is dependent on there being a release vehicle for the change. Apple has not publicly announced any iPhone releases beyond the currently available iPhone OS 3.1, so I can't offer any predictions as to how long it will take for your change to make it into a consumer release.

o long term -- In the long term (that is, post iPhone OS 3.x) we hope to offer a better-architected solution to this problem. However, right now I have nothing concrete that I can share with you on that front. I've made a note of your incident and plan to notify you when we start seeding our long-term solution.

Source: http://forum.melloware.com/viewtopic...0443fd7065483d


- kalx