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How to log into a captive portal (public WiFi) when you have a system wide private DNS? (quokk.au)

submitted 4 weeks ago by AloneDownUnder@quokk.au to c/privacy@lemmy.ml

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Hi all

I'm using DNS over TLS with Quad9 as my DNS provider.
This works great in most circumstances, but when I want to connect to a public wifi, like at school or in the library, it's not possible to open the Captive portal page, and I can't use the network.

Is there some way to easily make this work? Maybe exclude these networks from private DNS?
Or a way to easily switch between network configurations?

I'm using systemd resolved, but configured with a private dns via my NixOs configuration.

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[–] _Nemo_@lemmy.ml 6 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

            
              Disable DNS once. Find out URL/IP of captive portal that way.
Add to hosts file (Win/Lin/Mac). Maybe even give an alias: "captive-school", "captive-library", etc.
Turn DNS back on. The hosts file will take prerogative over DNS settings, i.e. it is resolved first.

[–] AloneDownUnder@quokk.au 4 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago) (1 children)

This could be a good option for the library actually.
Maybe I can just check the IP via my phone, then add it to the hosts of my laptop.

I'll give that a try

A bit cumbersome if you are traveling and using a different public wifi every time though

[–] _Nemo_@lemmy.ml 5 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

A bit cumbersome if you are traveling and using a different public wifi every time though

You're not wrong. But you're probably also familiar with the "secure vs. convenient" dichotomy: the closer to the "secure" end of the spectrum you get, the more cumbersome things will inevitably get. If you feel like you're jumping through too many hoops and you don't know what for, chances are you're overshooting the target in terms of your threat model and might get away with doing less.

[–] AloneDownUnder@quokk.au 2 points 4 weeks ago

True, I just found it convenient to block ads and trackers on a system level.

If you are using something like nextDNS it's very easy to block ads and trackers everywhere, and even block social media or adult websites and such.

So using DNS over TLS is not necessarily about hiding my internet traffic, but more also to limit unnecessary content. I suppose the same can be done with a combination of browser extensions. But using the private DNS made sense to me.