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Configure optional Captive Portal settings

Updated
This article is for IT Support. 

  Important

You need a physical Linewize Filter Appliance to use the Captive Portal feature.

Before you begin

Permanent Associations

A Permanent Association links a user's authenticated identity to a device, allowing the user to connect to your school's network on that device without signing in to the Captive Portal again.

If users want to skip signing in when using a new device, they must permanently associate that device with their identity.

Users can permanently associate their identity with multiple devices.

  Warning

Shared devices should be added to the Association Exceptions list to avoid incorrect user associations.

Turn on Permanent Associations

  1. Select:
    • All Users to permanently associate devices for all users. This hides the Groups option.
      OR
    • Groups to permanently associate devices for specific groups only, such as teachers, non-teaching staff, or certain students.
  2. Select Save.

Image 1: The Permanent Associations section

When Permanent Association is turned on

After signing in successfully, users can select Continue and Save My Device to permanently associate their current device with their account. This means they won’t need to sign in again when reconnecting to the network on the same device.

Image 2: Option to permanently associate your device

When Permanent Association is turned off

The Captive Portal asks users to Visit your Dashboard or redirects them to a URL. They must sign in to the Captive Portal each time they connect to the school network.

Image 3: Successful sign in to the Captive Portal

Redirect to Website

You can automatically redirect users to a specific website after sign in:

  1. Select Auto Redirect.
  2. Enter a full URL (for example, https://www.google.com)

If turned off, users will be directed to the default welcome page.

Image 4: Difference between a Google Redirect and a No Redirect

Exceptions

Exceptions let specific devices or networks bypass the Captive Portal to prevent disruptions, especially for printers, routers, or shared equipment.

Image 5: Adding Exceptions to devices

  Important

Changes in Google OAuth and iOS captive portal interactions may cause iOS users to encounter the following error when attempting to sign in:

Access blocked: Authorization Error

To allow iOS users to authenticate and access the network through a Captive Portal, you must add the following Captive Portal Website exceptions:

  • login.linewize.net
  • autologin.linewize.net

Adding Exceptions

  1. Select Add Exception.
  2. Enter a Name or select a Criteria from the Select Criteria dropdown.

    Criteria

    		 Description
    Network Range Applies to an IP range
    MAC Address Applies to a single MAC address
    Network Applies to an IP subnet
    IP Address Applies to a single IP address
    Website Applies to a single website
    Device Type Applies to a specific device type
    Application Applies to an application using signatures
    IP Address Object

    Applies to a list of predefined IP addresses using Object Pools


    See Objects and Object Pools for more information
    MAC Address Object

    Applies to a list of predefined MAC Addresses using Object Pools


    See Objects and Object Pools for more information
    Website Object

    Applies to a list of predefined websites using Object Pools

     

    See Objects and Object Pools for more information
  3. Enter the required value(s) for the criteria. If you’re using multiple entries, separate each entry with a comma.
  4. Select Save.