What is a Captive Portal? How WiFi Login Pages Work

This guide explains the technical architecture behind captive portals — the login pages you encounter on public WiFi. We'll cover how devices detect them, how authentication works, and the common configuration issues that trip up IT teams.

8 min read

IT Managers & Network Engineers

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In this guide

How captive portals really work Authentication methods compared Common issues and misconceptions How Purple handles this Why bother with a captive portal?