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I often use my Windows 7.5 phone at places with free Wifi, e.g. Starbucks. These often have a confirmation screen such that simply makes you check a check box and press a button to accept their terms, and then you're connected.

Most of the time, when connecting, the screen switches to the browser window and brings up the confirmation screen. That is good. But occasionally, it doesn't bring up the confirmation screen, but still says "connected". But no, I'm not connected.

I then can see no way of disconnecting and reconnecting to get the confirmation screen to come up. I've turned Wifi off to disconnect and waited 20 seconds. But when I turn Wifi on again, it simply connects without the confirmation screen ... and I still have no connection.

Is there any way to force the confirmation screen to open up, or otherwise connect?

Update: I just purchased a Windows 8 Phone. The same thing happens. For two sites in particular (Starbucks and MTS hot spots), the Wifi "connects" but 40% of the time the browser does not pop up with a confirmation screen. Because of that the Wifi is not really connected.

Nothing I do at that point (turn off wifi and then on again, turn off phone and on again, disconnect by attempting to connect to a different wifi and then coming back) will allow me to login to that wifi. However, the next day, I may come back and it may work.

This is infuriating. Anyone else having the problem? Any more ideas?

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    Have you tried to open the browser manually? Out guest wlan automatically shows the confirmation / login page when connected but not having logged in. Maybe those public wlans do the same?
    – Sascha
    Nov 25 '12 at 8:26
  • @Sascha - Yes, I have. None of the six tabs show the confirmation page. What confuses me is why sometimes (60% of the time), the page comes up, but the rest of the times it doesn't. When it doesn't, I can't find a way to get it to come up.
    – lkessler
    Nov 25 '12 at 16:41
  • Have you tried completely closing the browser or clearing the browser history and then re-opening the browser? Not a great solution but might help diagnose the problem.
    – row1
    Nov 29 '12 at 5:54
  • @row1 - Thanks for the suggestions. I have tried closing the browser. I will try clearing the browser history at my next opportunity.
    – lkessler
    Nov 30 '12 at 4:22
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  • Go to Settings>Wi-Fi
  • Press and hold on the name of the network
  • Press "Delete"
  • Turn Wi-Fi off for a few seconds
  • Turn it on
  • Then try to reconnect

If it doesn't work the first time, try clearing your history and making sure all your tabs are closed.

If this doesn't work you might need to contact support for your phone.

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  • I too have this problem. I think the solution is to connect to a different network and then reconnect to the network you are wanting to try.....I believe the phone thinks you have already done the confirmation if it is the last network you were connected to.
    – user1673
    Jul 25 '13 at 15:23
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    One thing I've found that helps is to save the confirmation screens of the various sites as favorites. Then if the confirmation screen does not come up when you connect, you can open the saved confirmation screen up. It usually works, but not always.
    – lkessler
    Jul 25 '13 at 19:38
  • One solution I've found is to turn off cellular data, then open the browser and the Starbucks wifi appears right away! Then I can turn data back on. If I close then re-open the browser, it simply uses LTE and has connection. By turning off the LTE data, I guess that forces the browser to seek another way... in any case, try it! Works for me.
    – user1724
    Aug 4 '13 at 15:36

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