You see a mysterious subject matter in a window on your Mac ’s blind when hear to tie to Wi - Fi : “ Paused ” with a big gloomy Pause button . Additional schoolbook reads , “ Your gadget has been intermit . ” At the bottom of the window , you see a domain , captive.apple.com , and a Cancel clit . A like window come out in a scene on an iPad or iPhone . The content is clear : you ca n’t get at the net via this connection .
What ’s creating this dialogue , and why doescaptive.apple.comappear on a Mac in a window that show it ? A Wi - Fi router has produce the message , and Apple ’s not involved except in exhibit it .
Several years ago , Apple added a apt method ( first to Macs and afterward to iPhones and iPads ) to permit them crop in effect at Wi - Fi hotspots that involve access a portal pageboy . Those hotspot portals hijack DNS ( domain naming system ) , the organization that release human - readable domain figure ( likewww.macworld.com ) into calculator - manageable Internet Protocol ( IP ) name and address ( like192.0.66.208 ) .
Before Apple added its put-on , you could have connectivity trouble after you touch base to a Wi - Fi web and before the web portal allow you associate to the cyberspace . If you stress to browse a website , the hot spot redirected you to the local vena portae . A portal web server expose a login varlet or other information on the redirection page : you might have to pay , penetrate an Accept Terms button , or lumber in with an subsist history to proceed .
This process is messy because it ’s in effect a nag of DNS , which was n’t intended for such a purpose . When you link to the web , the portal DNS direct could break all your other internet connections . Your electronic mail app would account error . Favicons ( the tiny internet site icons that come along in browser app tab bar ) might be prove as a broken image or , high-risk , change to the portal ’s . It was surly .
Apple intervene itself . When you first get in touch to a Wi - Fi meshing , Apple tries to connect tocaptive.apple.com . It checks the response . If the operating system ca n’t hit that domain , it interprets that as there being a portal in place , and lend up a dialog in iOS , iPadOS , or macOS that ’s like an embedded web web browser . It lets you navigate the portal login like a WWW page , but tells the relief of your apps you ’re not connected to a connection yet .
In the case of this Pause content , a local router has prevented your twist from link up to the cyberspace . The “ portal ” pageboy it displays is the one that contain the subject matter and graphic — Apple is n’t generating that in any of its operating systems .
On examining one lecturer ’s screen capture , it ’s clean that their home plate Amazon Eero router had “ paused ” access . That ’s an Eero feature film that can be used to control schedule access to the internet on a gadget - by - gimmick foundation . It ’s possible that the reader or their rest home IT expert accidentally enabled this suspension mode in the profile .
Other routers have similar feature film : they can block specific equipment by their meshwork I.D. or stoppage twist that are n’t on an approved access leaning .
The solution for the Eero or a similar berth is to put on to your internet administrator — which may be you or a family extremity — to connect to the router and check a boxful or okay a connexion to “ unpause . ”
This Mac 911 article is in response to a inquiry submitted by Macworld reader Gail .
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