How is free wifi in your area? I visited two different Walmart stores where they typically have fast wifi, but today there was no internet connection given to my notebook, but they did allow a connection on my cell phone. I expect a communications blackout to hit soon. (My location: Arkansas, USA)

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[–]In-the-clouds[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Provided interesting feedback on a related post: u/AmericanMuskrat u/Rob3122

[–]quantum-step 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Could it be a captive portal? Where it redirects every web page to their portal and you gotta agree to their terms of service before using their wifi.
The sys admin could just block whatever website your notebook uses as a connectivity check. I block everything Microsoft and Apple on my home network, and the wifi icon says I'm offline right now. People that use the ad blocking dns server pi-hole often get told their offline while streaming videos over the internet because of this.

Sources: https://pi-hole.net/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captive_portal

[–]In-the-clouds[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

The Walmart stores in my city have not required any portals, redirects, or TOS agreements any of the other times I have used their service. (McDonald's does, though.)

[–]Alienhunter 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

With free shit you get what you pay for.

Also there's a heavy solar flare activity supposedly.

Last week there was a major disruption of service with one of the major Japanese telecom companies. I suspect we're either seeing the effects of COVID neglect on the networks, or Russians running interference.

[–]In-the-clouds[S] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

It's easy to just blame everything on the Russians, but the sad truth is even our own government is against us. The global leaders already announced the internet blackout in advance, as if they are following a script, like they did with COVID.

https://www.bitchute.com/video/CBTzgwLUoDJD/

[–]In-the-clouds[S] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

or Russians running interference.

It is true that the Russians are at war with the US, even if that is not yet public knowledge. Prophetic messages have revealed that Russia and China will defeat the once-great nation of America. There is also war with North Korea and Iran. The US will be overwhelmed.

[–]CreditKnifeMan 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Blackouts won't last long.

They depend upon the firehose of propaganda to keep the public asleep.

I'm looking forward to it. The wheels will come off the brainwashing bus.

[–]In-the-clouds[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

The blackout will probably last long enough to bring in a new government. Will Trump lead the nation into another civil war? The propaganda and lies will not end after the internet is restored, but increase. The world will even go so low as to reject the real God and worship a beast instead, and taking his mark to buy or sell, especially at Walmart.

[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Walmart sucks with just about everything. It doesn't surprise me that their wifi is trash. The bar is never too low .

[–]SoCo 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Computers/phones test for Internet connectivity by trying to ping or connect to a predetermined website. This website can collect the IPs and times of pings to track people, but that's not the point.

Most corporate open Wifi's have a captive portal, which prevents communications and intercepts page requests, until they show you a web page and you click to accept their terms of service.

This frequently makes Internet connectivity tests fail, while after trying to use the Internet, you'll find you get hit with a TOS agreement, then it all works fine.

[–]In-the-clouds[S] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I have used the wifi at both of these locations previously with no trouble. Something changed.

[–]In-the-clouds[S] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

For anyone interested, the internet connection was restored after I changed the MAC ID of my notebook computer. After that, I also changed the DNS.