** Changed in: indicator-network (Ubuntu)
   Importance: Undecided => Wishlist

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/914507

Title:
  Feature Request: special Browser window for logging in to WiFi
  Hotspots

Status in Canonical System Image:
  Confirmed
Status in indicator-network package in Ubuntu:
  Confirmed
Status in network-manager package in Ubuntu:
  Triaged

Bug description:
  Problem occurs with: Ubuntu, all versions
  Does not occur with: Fedora 21 and later, elementary OS 0.3 and later, OS X 
10.7 and later

  WiFi Hotspots normally redirect all traffic to a special IP address which 
provides a Welcome page with a login form. Accessing this server with another 
protocol does not work, which is not a problem for POP3, IMAP or SSH, but it is 
a problem if you connect by https, because your browser will recognise the 
wrong security certificate or the port is not even used (which is even better 
in my opinion).
  1) So if I open a browser it automatically tries to open its Start page which 
is https in my case (I use the HTTPS Everywhere plugin in my firefox). Because 
it uses https, I will not be redirected to the login page and am waiting in 
front of an empty page. Then I manually have to open a link which does not use 
https and get redirected to the login page.
  2) Another annoying thing are other users who open a saved browser session. 
All saved (http-)tabs will be redirected to the welcome page so that it does 
not make any sense anymore to save the browser session.
  3) Firefox also sometimes does compatibility checks and plugin updates at 
start time. These also fail when trying to login to a Hotspot network.

  How can we solve this problem?

  First, network manager should check if the connected wireless network is a 
Hotspot network. This chan be done by a simple http request to a stable and 
well-known page, for example http://gnome.org/netcheck which returns a known 
token (something like "Yes, you are connected to the Internet").
  - If the token is returned, everything is fine and the user has connection
  - If it does not receive this token but a redirect, it should open a special 
browser-window (not the default browser because of the reasons above) which 
allows to log-in to the network before other internet applications are started.
  - In any other case, network manager could try another server (backup) or 
stop probing.

  For known wireless networks, network manager could also provide a
  setting to disable/autodetect/force hotspot login.

  <https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Networking#captive-portal>: "Whenever Ubuntu
  makes a new network connection, if 'Prompt whenever a new connection
  requires Web login' is checked, it should perform HTTP and DNS checks
  that the connection is valid. If it is not..."

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