After realising that the problem had nothing to do with the VPN Server, I've done further investigation and the most likely cause of this is the check that all Android phones have to do before they will connect to a WiFi Network.
On occasions I've caught an error from 'connectivitycheck.gstatic.com/ generate_204'. Sometimes I'm getting 'net::ERR_CONNECTION_ABORTED' and sometimes I get 'net::ERR_TIMED_OUT'. I've posted a typical screenshot at: https://hadrian-way.co.uk/Misc/Android_Screenshot_2022-03-29.jpg The trouble is that during WiFi connection checks a message is sent to that URL by the phone and if the response isn't received, then Android believes that there is no Internet access and (normally) flags this up to the user with an option to ignore before connecting. It seems that nodogsplash somehow gets into the middle of this sometimes and the Welcome splash screen doesn't get displayed. Even so, a user 'in the know' can still connect to the content by browsing to the Home Page, so the connection is still made. Unfortunately there will be no Visitors to WMT who are in the know. The trouble is that development of nodogsplash seems to be moribund, the last commits being about 2 years ago and there have been no issues added since October last year. I therefore suspect that I can't get much help from that source. Has anyone any thoughts on this? As mentioned elsewhere this problem isn't new; we just had less understanding of it 2-3 years ago and it was less prevalent. Before that, I used to display a notice on site which gave instructions on how to browse to the Home Page, but this was deemed to be too complicated and nodogsplash was installed to make it easier.. I don't really want to have to go back to the original approach if possible. -- Terry Coles -- Next meeting: Online, Jitsi, Tuesday, 2022-05-04 20:00 Check to whom you are replying Meetings, mailing list, IRC, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk New thread, don't hijack: mailto:dorset@mailman.lug.org.uk
