Apple Macbook and Hotspot Logins

RouterOS General
1

Hi, recently we have started to see problems with the redirect process on our hotspots for Apple Mac users only. This happens whether they are using firefox or safari. When they connect to the hotspot wireless and try to browse, they just don’t get redirected at all, they just get the “server not found” error from the browser. When we get the user to type the hotspot DNS name into their browser manually it works fine from then on. We are using a system which uses the local redirect page to redirect to our servers for advertising and login, then back to the hotspot after that. This process works fine for all Windows based machines, and only does this for Apple Macs, and only seems to have started playing up in the last few months.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks
Paul

2

What version are you running? I have tested v3.22 with my Mac Book Pro on a newly created hotspot on a RB433. Works fine.

3

Thanks for the reply.
We are currently using 3.0 on that unit, the hotspot interface is bridged back to a core hotspot router which is running 3.0 also.
Are you aware of any issues with that version that may warrant an upgrade ?


Regards
Paul

4

Which specific version of 3.0? I should be able to downgrade a spare RB from 3.22 to the specific version you have and can then test.

5

That would be great !, it is actually V3.0 not V3.x as such

Thanks
Paul

6

OK, just asking as they did “3.0 beta 1” to “3.0 beta 10” and “3.0 rc1” to “3.0 rc14” as well as one called “3.0”!

7

Ah, yes I understand now, it is just the straight 3.0 from what I can see :slight_smile:

Regards
Paul

8

Apologies for the silence. I tried to apply v3.0 but the copy I had was corrupted and the RB quite rightly refused to downgrade to it. I then tried v3.2 which was the next version up that I had, but that has resulted in my RB constantly crashing within seconds of booting with a ‘system watchdog error’ and reboots before I can get a chance to do something about it. Unfortunately my serial cable has also decided to stop working for some stupid reason, so my trials will need to wait until I sort those ‘minor’ problems out.

I can confirm that v3.22 which we use here works fine with Safari on a Mac, as that is what I am using myself.

9

Try disabling the DNS Name in IP → Hotspot → Server Profiles → [Your Profile].

In Windows XP with IPv6 installed, having an invalid DNS name like hotspot.mycompany.local causes problems. It could be that the same happens on a Mac.

10

Not exactly the same thing but how has the macs mobileme or back to my mac been working with mikrotik? Anytime I am behind a mikrotik I always get back to my mac is not working properly because it requires a router that supports nat-pmp or upnp. Upnp is on and does work for other applications on the mac. Saw some other Apple users and thought I would see if I am the only one with these issues.

Thanks

11

I asked about back to my mac in this post. http://forum.mikrotik.com/t/mobile-me-back-to-my-mac/23309/1 It died that day. I have tried every version of ROS since then with no success.