Knowledge base · TOPIC-15

Why AI tools fail on public or hotel Wi-Fi

Short answer: Wi-Fi association, a local address, and a gateway can all succeed before the network grants Internet access. A captive portal may require visible human authentication first.

Apple documents the captive-network sign-in flow. Until it is complete, HTTPS and AI-client requests may time out or be redirected. That pattern makes a portal plausible; a single timeout does not prove one.

Open the system-provided sign-in flow, review the network’s terms, and authenticate manually. Do not automate credentials, CAPTCHA, or terms acceptance. Afterward, rerun the same bounded checks. If ordinary Internet access is restored but the AI workflow remains broken, continue with DNS, TCP, TLS, and provider-specific evidence rather than changing several network settings at once.

Tivor Open Probe V0.1 is read-only: it does not open portals, alter routes, disable TUN, or repair Wi-Fi. The browser Scanner may show incomplete evidence before authentication; Open Probe can record local context after you explicitly run it. Related: captive portal versus provider failure.