T&C Splash screen for new Liahona SSID

What do you do when a laptop doesn't automatically open up the splash screen to accept the Terms and Conditions of access?
We have one stake presidency member who can't get on.
the connection is established but "No Internet, secured" status
I tried manually going to https://guestwirelesstermsofuse.churchofjesuschrist.org
but this didn't work either.

Any ideas?

Is he running a VPN on his system? He may have to turn it off to establish connection.

Thanks for the reply, no, he has no VPN

I'd check for pop-up blockers or anything else that might interfere with the process.

At one time, people had to use the network's DNS as it was part of the filtering. As such, having a static DNS might cause problems.

Have you tried opening a web browser and trying to access an external site, like Google.com or ChurchofJesusChrist.org?

Depending on how my phone is feeling on any particular day, sometimes I get a popup to click on, sometimes my browser opens, sometimes I have to go in to Settings > WiFi > etc and click on the WiFi network. Sometimes I have to disconnect from the network and then try again.

How quickly and how much effort it takes to respond is inversely proportional to the urgency of need for the information I am seeking. At least that part is consistent.

I take my laptop to church each Sunday. There are many times that the wireless icon in my system tray changes to the "globe" icon, but I still have access to the internet. I've noticed the same thing on my Android phone (with "data" disabled so it is forced to use the wireless). Both devices can run like that for a while, but eventually, I must bring up the T&C screen to renew my lease. I find it interesting that I don't lose my internet connection immediately. I had thought I had to agree to the T&C screen every day I returned to the meetinghouse. I wonder what the true lease time is for a Liahona connection.

Our recently called Executive Secretary is having the same issue on his laptop. We have run the trouble shooting on the WiFi connection and there is not issue found. We have open up a session of MS Edge then try to connect through Wi-Fi. We can see that it is trying to connect but never received the T&C screen. Have closed MS Edge tried again but with same result. I even tried to have Internet Explorer 11 window open and still never receive the T&C screen. As far as I can tell, the laptop is working correctly just never see the confirmation screen. I am assume that it is a setting somewhere but do not know where else to look on the laptop. Thanks for your response.

gregpedersen wrote:We have open up a session of MS Edge then try to connect through Wi-Fi. We can see that it is trying to connect but never received the T&C screen.

Check the network settings. He may have specified a DNS. I think to use the church network, it has to be set for automatic.

My method to force the T&C screen to display on both my laptop and my cell phone is to turn off my wireless adapter for a few seconds, and then turn it on again. When a fresh connection to Liahona is attempted, a browser window opens with the T&C screen.

I likewise have similar issues. Generally the internet connection works for my laptop when I arrive at church, but then at some random point it loses internet access. When this happens, I am unsuccessful at bringing up the T&C page, using either Chrome or Edge. I have found that eventually by disabling/enabling wifi on my laptop, sometimes more than once, eventually things click and it displays the T&C.

My laptop is integrated into our Zoom sacrament meeting broadcast, so I usually spend a bit of time Sunday morning at church wrestling with my laptop so it "officially" connects to Liahona.

I wish there was a more robust implementation of the T&C paradigm, to account for the variety of user setup configurations which don't appear to be handled 100% (I don't think I have anything special on my laptop, but I'm no tech guy). Anyone know where I can log feedback for the T&C?

You could try contacting your STS and have him add your device to the Group Policy in TM. You need to be at the Meeting House and logged in so that your device can be seen.
This bypasses the splash screen and only works in that building. It saves a lot of hassle when done, especially on a Sunday.

Biggles wrote:You could try contacting your STS and have him add your device to the Group Policy in TM.

It's possible, but the STS only has 15 exceptions per meetinghouse to hand out. It was intended for devices that can't click on the splash screen such as chomecast devices, copiers, etc.

I'm suspecting the issue might be the DNS cache or a custom DNS setting. As I recall, the church network requires that you use their DNS so the filtering works. Others are blocked. If the computer has cached DNS results, it might cause odd connectivity results.

If disabling and re-enabling the WiFi on the device fixes the issue, then that's likely to be the fix.

russellhltn wrote:

Biggles wrote:You could try contacting your STS and have him add your device to the Group Policy in TM.

It's possible, but the STS only has 15 exceptions per meetinghouse to hand out. It was intended for devices that can't click on the splash screen such as chomecast devices, copiers, etc.

I'm curious to know how many devices are actually using the exceptions policy in each meeting house?

In my own Stake, consisting of 5 buildings, we have no printers, copiers etc. connected via wifi. When we get back from lockdown, Chromecast devices would probably not exceed 2-3 per building. I haven't found an indication anywhere of actual maximum number (15 as rusellhltn states), under the Group Policy. However I'm happy to be corrected on this! If the figure of 15 is accurate that still leaves my own building with about 10 spare exceptions to allocate. The only number limitations I have actually seen stated, are for Static IP addresses.

At the moment, in my own building which is the Stake centre, there are a total of 3 devices (2 of which are mine, laptop and iPad) using the exceptions policy. If the

The limit is mentioned in Registering Devices in Technology Manager.

It does indicate you can get more, but that's at the pleasure of the Meetinghouse Technology team, who I'm sure are going to be curious about "why".

I'm a "Pandora's Box" type of person. If you start down this road, pretty soon you'll have a number of requests from different people as word gets around. If two wards meet in the same building, you could easily have more than 15 requests just from the ward council. Where do you draw the line?

Thank you for the reference. That was the one place I didn't think to look!

Biggles wrote:Thank you for the reference. That was the one place I didn't think to look!

You're welcome. I think one of the biggest drivers for the forum's existence is to help people find where the information is. It's certainly my motivation since the clerk eGroup days.

Found a fix for this frustrating issue!

From https://www.google.com/amp/s/speedify.c ... ng-up/amp/

“ the problem could be that your browser cache is still trying to use the previous DNS info it knows to access sites instead of loading the WiFi login page. You can try to break this cycle by accessing a new website. You could clear your browser cache or better yet, open an incognito window in your browser and try visiting a non-HTTPS site.
You may be wondering why a non-HTTPS site. If you try to visit a secure site and your network tries to redirect your browser to a login screen, your browser will prevent to keep your data secure. Make sure to use an incognito window!”

They’ve got a few other ideas too but this one worked for me!

This has been determined to be a byproduct of IOS 14's new feature called "Private WiFi Address" which instructs a device to present a random MAC address to a wireless network when it connects. It interprets each different WAP in the same meetinghouse as a different network, thus changing the MAC address if moving around the building, which is requiring a new ToS page. Apple has provided a way to turn off Private WiFi Address on a per network basis on their devices:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211227

Once this is turned off for Liahona, the multiple daily requests to accept the Terms of Service splash page on an Apple device should cease.

This isn't just an iOS issue. The switches were recently upgraded in my local stake centre and I am now finding that random Android devices and my MacBook pro won't connect. Switching off the private address in iOS sometimes work. The message on all devices say it failed to receive an IP address. Yet in the TM interface I can see the devices have in fact been assigned an IP address. The T&C splash screen does not appear on any of them. Adding the devices to the group policy doesn't make a difference.

Since you have access to TM, when you go into the managed switch, do you see "Meraki MR33 Cloud Managed AP" under the LLDP for each of your APs? If not, then it's likely they're not wired directly to the switch like they should be.

russellhltn wrote:Since you have access to TM, when you go into the managed switch, do you see "Meraki MR33 Cloud Managed AP" under the LLDP for each of your APs? If not, then it's likely they're not wired directly to the switch like they should be.

Yep. Just found one in my stake center like that. It was added after the original ones and wasn't added correctly. Pretty easy to spot. In TM, click on your firewall, then DEVICES --> ACCESS POINTS. They all should be on their own VLAN, which is the same VLAN as the new managed switch. Mine is showing as 192.168.12.x, all except my one rogue AP; it's on 192.168.111.x.

Another way (like russellhltn mentioned) is go to DEVICES --> SWITCHES and click on Manage. Look (but don't touch) at the assignments there. Mine shows Ports 1-3 are AP's with another AP showing up on Port 7, which is assigned to Public.

I'm not positive if this will cause the problems others have posted about, but it's not correct and my OCD won't let me leave it configured like that.

Mikerowaved wrote:I'm not positive if this will cause the problems others have posted about, but it's not correct and my OCD won't let me leave it configured like that.

According to a email I got from mht:

A Meraki AP will not be able to connect to the internet if the Switch Port is still configured as "Public" in TM. This will also provide a bad, hard to troubleshoot wireless experience.

russellhltn wrote:According to a email I got from mht:

A Meraki AP will not be able to connect to the internet if the Switch Port is still configured as "Public" in TM. This will also provide a bad, hard to troubleshoot wireless experience.

Now that you mention it, I recall reading that. Before I move it to Port 4 on the switch, I'll see if it currently affects the ability to properly get and/or keep a connection on a wireless device.

Mikerowaved wrote:Before I move it to Port 4 on the switch, I'll see if it currently affects the ability to properly get and/or keep a connection on a wireless device.

Technically, it can be on any port of the managed switch, as long as that port is set as an AP. Still, I would move it to port 4 and set that one to AP.

The "preferred" configuration seems to be to put all of the APs on the first few ports of the managed switch, and leave the public connections to the higher numbered ports.

Mikerowaved wrote:

russellhltn wrote:According to a email I got from mht:

A Meraki AP will not be able to connect to the internet if the Switch Port is still configured as "Public" in TM. This will also provide a bad, hard to troubleshoot wireless experience.

Now that you mention it, I recall reading that. Before I move it to Port 4 on the switch, I'll see if it currently affects the ability to properly get and/or keep a connection on a wireless device.

As a follow-up, I was finally able to test the misconfigured AP and can confirm it will allow connected devices to access the building's LAN, but not access the Internet. The problem was, it was wired to a Public dumb switch and not directly to the managed switch.

I deactivated the AP, changed the cable to Port 4 of the managed switch, activated it again, rebooted it, and it now shows up on the proper 192.168.12.x VLAN. Connected devices now have Internet access.

One other thing I noticed - our older 10/100 dumb switches were swapped out with GigE switches. Thanks FM!

Something I ran across trying to look up information. From the Meetinghouse Network Troubleshooting Guide

Under "Wireless Access Points (AP) Troubleshooting Guide", 1 a iii 3 c i:
"Power injectors and in line switches are not permitted. Meraki APs must connect to Meraki switches to function properly."

Switches is understood, but the prohibition on power injectors surprise me.

russellhltn wrote:Switches is understood, but the prohibition on power injectors surprise me.

The ports on the new managed switches provide PoE. Wouldn't another power box just confuse things?

lajackson wrote:The ports on the new managed switches provide PoE. Wouldn't another power box just confuse things?

I wouldn't think so. I saw some installations done that way pre-managed switches and it didn't cause a problem. The AP is powered by the power injector instead of the switch.

My best guess is they're using some extra lines, or perhaps wanting to be able to power cycle the AP from the switch.

A couple of our chapels are having issues with the T&C Splash screen/Wifi in general. Apple products are not connecting nor pulling up the screen. Androids are connecting about half the time! We as missionaries spend time in the corner of the chapel so we might be a bit far from a router but half the time the wifi works fine. Not sure what we can do to reset the router. Anyone seeing the same issue with Apple products not being able to connect?

19rgiles wrote:Anyone seeing the same issue with Apple products not being able to connect?

If you're talking about Macs, see Having to add Macs to NoSplash.

I'm not aware of a problem with iPhone/iPad.

russellhltn wrote:

gregpedersen wrote:We have open up a session of MS Edge then try to connect through Wi-Fi. We can see that it is trying to connect but never received the T&C screen.

Check the network settings. He may have specified a DNS. I think to use the church network, it has to be set for automatic.

I had the same issue and I have a MacBook Pro running MacOS Big Sur version 11.5.1. I opened the wifi settings and selected DNS and I had two DNS addresses in there. Once I deleted them and re-started my wifi, the splash screen popped up! Thank you!!

This is actually a very common problem for people. I actually ended up enabling the Lehi SSID for my stake leadership which does not have a splash screen. It’s solved this problem for me. You have to change the password every 90 days and it’s only meant for leadership but it’s been very helpful.

You can also allow certain devices to skip the splash screen by enabling a group policy for them.

To answer your question though; in general when I have had issues with splash screens I have to first make sure all of my browser applications are completely closed down and I “forget” the network and re sign into it.

The common problem many people in my ward encounter is that their WiFi enabled device is set to automatically connect to the WiFi even when they have not opened a browser or an app that uses WiFi. As soon as their device is within range of the WiFi their device is sent the screen but it is not displayed but rather a notification prompt is sent to the device's notification panel. So when they attempt to use the WiFi by opening a browser or app they think the screen is not being sent and they cannot connect. I have instructed them to look for a notification for a WiFi connection on the device's notification panel. Tapping that notification opens the screen in their browser and they can complete the connection action.