The Hotspot Login page is a pop-up window that is automatically opened by the NetworkManager service in Ubuntu. This service is responsible for managing your computer's network connections.
When you connect to a new network, NetworkManager tries to fetch a text file over HTTP to check whether it has Internet access over that connection. If the HTTP query results in a redirect, or generally any response other than the expected one, the system assumes that it needs to go through a website-based login page first (called a "captive portal" login).
This is because many public Wi-Fi hotspots require users to log in before they can access the internet. The login page typically asks for some personal information, such as an email address or phone number. Once the user has logged in, they are granted access to the internet.
In some cases, however, home routers/modems also perform the same kind of redirection when they don't have a working WAN connection yet. This is typically done to inform the user that something is wrong with their internet connection. As soon as the modem establishes its Internet connection, it stops performing the redirections.
So what sometimes happens is that the modem's Wi-Fi goes up first, your computer connects and does its Internet access check – it gets redirected by the modem to its error page and launches a web browser – but by the time the browser opens, the modem finally has established the ISP connection and no longer performs the annoying redirections, so the browser ends up hitting the actual web server instead.
(Which, in the case of NetworkManager's default configuration, doesn't really expect visitors and only has that one text file which says "NetworkManager is online" or something like that.)
How can I prevent the Hotspot Login page from popping up?
There are a few things that you can do to prevent the Hotspot Login page from popping up:
- You can disable the "hotspot check" feature in NetworkManager. To do this, To disable it, go to System Settings > Privacy > Network Connectivity Checking > turn it OFF > close. Next time you find a wifi hotspot you won't see the Hotspot Login anymore.