Getting the iPhone or iPod Touch around WiFi activation pages
Problem: Some public WiFi activation pages can’t be completed on the iPhone or iPod Touch, preventing internet access.
Solution: Register the device’s MAC address with the system by spoofing it on a computer.
Notes: I occasionally find myself with some downtime on the campus of a large college for which my company does work. The activation page for their public WiFi network doesn’t render correctly in Mobile Safari, the web browser used in the iPhone and iPod Touch. The buttons you must press to page through the process are covered up by text, making them untouchable.
The workaround is to temporarily change a computer’s MAC address, the unique serial number of the computer’s WiFi card, to match that of the iPhone or iPod Touch. Completing the activation process on the computer then registers the mobile device’s MAC address with the activation system, allowing the device itself to bypass the activation process.
The workaround below will help get any device that doesn’t have a full web browser onto a public WiFi system with problematic activation pages. This process does require a computer with WiFi. The directions are based on ChangeMAC for Macs. Technitium is an equivalent for Windows computers, though I have not tested it.
- Download ChangeMAC on your laptop.
- Turn off WiFi on both your laptop and mobile device.
- Find your mobile device’s MAC address. On the iPhone or iPod Touch, go to Settings > General > About. The MAC address is in the “WiFi Address” field.
- On your laptop, load up ChangeMAC.
- On the “Airport (wireless)” tab, enter the MAC address from your mobile device into the “New MAC Address” field and click “Set New Address.”
- Turn your laptop’s WiFi on, connect to the WiFi network, and complete the activation process.
- Turn your laptop’s WiFi off.
- Turn your mobile device’s WiFi on and connect to the WiFi network. It should now be able to access the internet without activation.
- Change your laptop’s MAC address back to the original. This is shown as “Hardware MAC Address” in ChangeMAC. You must complete this step before trying to rejoin the WiFi network on the laptop; otherwise it will conflict with the mobile device’s identical MAC address.