How can I connect this MacBook to a school wifi network?

Post date: 2021-02-28 16:02:26

I need to help my child reliably connect to the wifi at his elementary school, in a way that he can do on his own. The network isn't password protected â€” once connected there is a pop-up window with a captive portal page. On that page there is a link that must be clicked to actually access the internet. The problem is that the captive portal page does not load properly in the pop up, so he can't click anything. At that point the computer thinks it's connected, but he can't access the internet. What can I do?

Some pertinent technical info:

- He's using a MacBook Pro running Mojave.

- I have an admin account. He has a separate account managed by parental controls â€” the main reason for that is to prevent apps like Creative Cloud from trying to run. If I don't limit those, all kinds of unnecessary stuff tries to run as soon as he logs in to his account.

- I don't seem to have trouble connecting to the school wifi on my account, but I'm not totally sure.

- Once I get connected somehow, either on my account or by using a page like neverssl.com on his account (which doesn't seem to work 100%), there's no way for me to disconnect and try again. Even if I delete the network from the list of preferred networks in system preferences, it stays connected. I need to be able to disconnect so that he and I can practice getting connected again.

Other concerns:

- His teacher has limited ability to help.

- Many (most?) of the kids in class are using school-issued chromebooks, which I assume are connecting just fine. We didn't ask for a chromebook at the start of school, and now we've missed the boat.

- I don't want to switch him to a different computer, if possible. We don't have another, for one, but also he's been using this one for the school year thus far and is used to navigating it.

My questions, in order of preferred solution:

1. Is there a hack to bypass the captive portal altogether? That would be ideal.

2. Failing that, is there a reliable way to trigger the captive portal page?

3. If 2, is there a way to disconnect from that particular wifi network so that he and I can practice joining? We'll sit in the car outside the school to practice this.

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