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first off, I'm a bit of a newbie and networking stuff is not my forte. So I've been pulling my hair out for the last hour trying to get my 12.04 Ubuntu partition to connect to an AT&T hotspot in Starbucks. I have switched to my Windows partition on the computer so that I can get some work done. This happens every one in a while when I try to connect to public wifi and I think it relates to something with DNS going awry when I need to be rerouted to accept free wifi terms and conditions.

Behaviour: The wifi indicator says it's connected and has a strong signal, but I get a generic "not connected" when trying to access google through Chromium. My phone and windows partition both connect, so something is up with Ubuntu.

Things I've Tried:

  • Tried Firefox, same message
  • Pinging www.google.com says that the DNS server can't resolve the name or something similar. Pinging 8.8.8.8 gets a response.
  • Restarted via /etc/init.d/network-manager restart
  • Logged in, Logged out
  • Restarted Machine
  • Found the IP address of what I think it the router. It redirects to the correct web address of the page where I would click the agreement for lawfully using Starbucks wifi, but shows an error message in the browser, which say something like "Unable to resolve the server's DNS"
  • renamed the /etc/resolv.conf file, then moved it back when doing so didn't do anything (as per Can not access Internet (DNS names do not resolve) after update today)
  • Commented out dnsmasq and then uncommented it (as per: http://www.ubuntugeek.com/how-to-disable-dnsmasq-in-ubuntu-12-04precise.html)
  • Went in to the chromium settings and fiddled with a bunch of privacy settings (un-checking "Predict network actions to improve page load performance" was suggested by chromium. It was already unclicked)
  • In the GUI network manager for the attn network, tried turning off auto everything and manually putting in the server name for the dns server (no idea if this makes any sense, was kind of flailing at this point)
  • Ran this command: sudo dpkg-reconfigure resolvconf, which was a little scary...hope I didn't mess anything up. (as per: http://oct.im/auto-dns-resolving-in-ubuntu-1204-desktop.html)

It's a little tough to talk on-line and troubleshoot, since I've only got one machine and I can get on-line but it involves rebooting on a windows partition. Any suggestions and/or advice would be very appreciated! Thank you!

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Lyla
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  • You were close. In the Network Manager, for this network, instead of entering a server name for the DNS server, try entering the IP address of a DNS server(s) (for example, 8.8.8.8, 8.8.4.4). I'm not sure why you aren't getting the DNS address the router is distributing. – saiarcot895 Jul 12 '14 at 00:57
  • I am having the same problems with Ubuntu 14.04 and I tried the suggestion @saiarcot895 made, but that did not work either. – mason81 Aug 29 '14 at 22:28
  • Sadly, this problem still exists even on a fresh installation of Ubuntu 17.04. The problem is that the Starbucks login (in my case) redirects to secure.datavalet.io which doesn't resolve unless the DNS gateway is properly set per the automatic setting of the wireless connection. And in my case, the DNS gateway is still 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 which is what it was before connecting to the wifi - and incorrect for resolving secure.datavalet.io. – Dan Oct 14 '17 at 21:42

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