Days Inn’s Wi-Fi connection is “Days Inn” with the password “guest123” but the selection “Days Inn” is not locked, so it immediately connects without an opportunity to enter the password, but upon navigating to any website this error message is given “Your connection is not secure” and there never is an opportunity to enter the password. I was told by the front desk that once I reached a website, I would then be prompted to enter the password, but no website can be reached. Could this be a proxy issue, or is there some other configuration needed?
Hi @rdcast, Could you have some filter like NoScript or UBO? Any website should redirect to their login page but I’m thinking your browser doesn’t like this page for some other reason. And connecting to a secure site like, say, this site via HTTPS and getting redirected to an HTTP login page could be the reason for “Your connection is not secure”.
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Thanks for your reply Bill,
Odd thing is, I moved from one Days Inn where no such problem occurred. The difference between the two hotels is the way the Wi-Fi network login is implemented. The first Days Inn where I had no problems signing in had an open network with no need for a pass. Then, moving to this Days Inn, the Wi-Fi network starts off as if it were open with no need of a pass so it seems to connect, or so it is indicated, but then it would be required, at the time of entering any website, the pass would be required. But, in this case, the error message preempts the entering of any website leaving no opportunity to enter the needed pass, causing both Mint 19 and Maté to report there is no Internet connection.
Your description pretty much confirms some poorly implemented web page has to be satisfied but your browser won’t display it. The reason it won’t display has to be found.
Be careful. If you see anything requiring to add an exception certificate for a secure site DON’T. This could be a fake malicious site trying to get credit card numbers.
You might try to get more information on that error page. Or try without Addons/Extensions. Also mention which browser you use (Firefox, Chromium, etc.).
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The hotel (and many other public Wi-Fi’s) have something called a captive portal which is the “middleman” trying to redirect to its own login page before you can use the network. The “not secure” message would appear if you were trying to visit a HTTPS website 
- it’s gets tricky if you have any extensions trying to force HTTPS all the time.
Ubuntu 18.04 (GNOME) supports captive portals, so a window would appear with the login page, but I don’t believe Ubuntu MATE’s networking stack detects these portals at the moment.
One workaround is to visit a HTTP site (preferably a site you haven’t visited before so it won’t redirect to HTTPS) like http://192.168.1.1 (generally a router page)
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NetworkManager, which Ubuntu MATE uses, supports captive portals. I don’t have much insight on what the problem would be, but I personally would actually encourage using uBlock Origin or NoScript along with HTTPS Everywhere browser extensions when on a public/hotel Wi-Fi.
Also Ubuntu MATE includes a handy ufw firewall interface that allows you to tell it that you’re on a public network.
Sorry, I hope you fix the captive portal issue, I’m just paranoid when connecting to pubic Wi-Fi networks 
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Thanks guys,
I don’t have any such extensions, indeed, I have no extensions at all. I do have NordVPN, which, for the same reason, cannot login. Also, Software Boutique and Software Update give the same fail message, “Check your Internet connection”. Everything reverts to “https” including http://192.168.1.1
The message comes from:
https://www.google.com/search?client=ubuntu&channel=fs&q=time&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8
this above address, of course, occurred when I searched “time”
Thanks for the warning my friend, I shall heed it.
Merry Christmas!
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