Aura H2O WLAN access with no www connection

[Vauxdvihl]

Hi all,

i am new here and i have a question with regards to my Aura H2O.

I have received my H2O and i have done everything requested from the manual (first time going online, update and register).

At home i have 2 Wlan Networks
- 1 Wlan to access the www
- 1 Wlan to access the server stuff (no connection to www)

The H2O should / must connect to this WLan having no www access.
And this is my problem, the device don't do this
Unfortunately every other device here at home is able to connect to this WLan without www access.

Currently for test reasons i have set the pwd to open (so no pwd is set).
But the H2O will not connect.

Does have somebody of you have any idea, what the problem from the h2O could be?
I am a little bit lost

Thanks for your help

Regards

[davidfor]

Unfortunately, the Kobo devices check for a web page when they connect to WiFi. If it can't connect to the page, it won't connect at all. The workaround people have used redirect the check to a local server that returned the correct result. The page used was a page at apple.com, but it changed in recent firmware version. Sorry, I can't think of what the URL is, but, a search should find it, or someone with a better memory will drop by.

[Vauxdvihl]

thanks for your answer.
This is sad

Do you know, bringing Android on this device will solve my problem?

Thanks

[davidfor]

If you install Android, you are replacing the OS on the device. After that, it will follow the rules of whatever version of Android you use, not the rules built into the Kobo firmware.

And I found the URL: http://www.msftncsi.com/ncsi.txt

[barobach_so]

hi

I want to ask about my problem that related to this topic

My H2O can't connect to wireless network
it recently got this problem
when its restarted, it shows an error "Something went wrong"

I read somewhere its related to a kobo conf file and should change kobo urls in section one store but even with change that urls nothing changes


I think i should to hard reset my device but hope to find a solution

[Vauxdvihl]

Originally Posted by davidfor

If you install Android, you are replacing the OS on the device. After that, it will follow the rules of whatever version of Android you use, not the rules built into the Kobo firmware.

And I found the URL: http://www.msftncsi.com/ncsi.txt

thanks a lot
Hopefully last question:
Do you know a small HowTo for this?

Thanks

[PeterT]

I will admit I'm a bit confused. Unless you utilize one of the alternate readers, you are severely limited in what you can do with your device unable to access the WWW wlan; about all I can see you as being able to do is to use the web browser to download content to the device from a local server.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Vauxdvihl

thanks a lot
Hopefully last question:
Do you know a small HowTo for this?

Sorry, I know someone has written some steps here, but I haven't bothered to try them. I know it needs to redirect the URL to a local server that returns the same result as the test page.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by barobach_so

hi

I want to ask about my problem that related to this topic

My H2O can't connect to wireless network
it recently got this problem
when its restarted, it shows an error "Something went wrong"

I read somewhere its related to a kobo conf file and should change kobo urls in section one store but even with change that urls nothing changes


I think i should to hard reset my device but hope to find a solution

I get that occasionally, usually powering off and on fixes it. I can't think of anything in the config file that relates to this as the WiFi configuration is elsewhere. PeterT has a fix that completely resets the WiFi setup and might fix this if the power off doesn't help.

[PeterT]

Originally Posted by davidfor

I get that occasionally, usually powering off and on fixes it. I can't think of anything in the config file that relates to this as the WiFi configuration is elsewhere. PeterT has a fix that completely resets the WiFi setup and might fix this if the power off doesn't help.

See Unable to add WiFi Network and solution

[Ken Maltby]

You could temporarily turn off the router for the network you don't want. Then, with the WiFi off, go to settings>WiFi>edit connections and delete that network from the "known networks list". Then turn the WiFi on and "Join a WiFi network", to have it scan for networks, since the unwanted network is off you should only find the one you want (and others nearby), select the one you want and follow the prompts to add it. I would reboot your device afterwards, to make sure the changes are made. Then you can turn the unwanted network's router back on.

Or, you could do it from tshering's "Kobo Start Menu" (KSM7).

Luck;
Ken

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Ken Maltby

You could temporarily turn off the router for the network you don't want. Then, with the WiFi off, go to settings>WiFi>edit connections and delete that network from the "known networks list". Then turn the WiFi on and "Join a WiFi network", to have it scan for networks, since the unwanted network is off you should only find the one you want (and others nearby), select the one you want and follow the prompts to add it. I would reboot your device afterwards, to make sure the changes are made. Then you can turn the unwanted network's router back on.

I'm not sure what you are fixing with that. The OP's issue is that after connecting to the WiF, the device checks if it can see a particular site. If it can't, it claims it can't connect and disconnects from WiFi. Changing to a different WiFi network will only work if that one has a connection to the outside world and the server that the OP wanted to get books from.

If you are talking about the second problem with the "Something went wrong", it is a little easier PeterT's suggestion and can be done first. But, if it doesn't fix things, PeterT's fix should work.

[Vauxdvihl]

It seems to me that i need to bring Android on the device.
Unfortunately i do not know how to bring some "dummy" site to my "WLan no www access Router".

Yestday i spend some time on google to search for some info for "redirect the URL to a local server" but i was not successfully in finding something useful.

It is strange that this www check from Kobo cannot be switched off (in some config file files or whatever).

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Vauxdvihl

It seems to me that i need to bring Android on the device.
Unfortunately i do not know how to bring some "dummy" site to my "WLan no www access Router".

Yestday i spend some time on google to search for some info for "redirect the URL to a local server" but i was not successfully in finding something useful.

It is strange that this www check from Kobo cannot be switched off (in some config file files or whatever).

If you have a local DNS server and web server, you can set up a dummy web site on your local network. Add an A record that points http://www.msftncsi.com to your local webserver and have the "site" simply be able to return the ncsi.txt file when requested.

You could also modify the hosts file on the Kobo but that would cause issues outside your private network so my preference is the local DNS server.

I tend to agree that having your Kobo on a private only network is a bit useless unless you are planning on using your Kobo to download files/ebooks from a server on your local network. My setup for my home network is to open up the internal network and harden the Internet connection though I do use a VLAN for guest access that has only Internet access -- unless someone decides to have fun VLAN hopping.

[frostschutz]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Add an A record that points http://www.msftncsi.com to your local webserver and have the "site" simply be able to return the ncsi.txt file when requested.

I just tried that and the result is "Hotspot detected blah blah" and it shows "Microsoft NCSI" as the hotspot login page. It does not actually let you use the browser this way.

Anyone know more?

EDIT: Oh, seems having \n in the ncsi.txt is bad. Let me check...

EDIT2: OK got it working, still says hotspot but "hotspot login successful" (?) now and then I can access LAN while WWW access is blocked.

I will wrap this into a mod later. It will serve ncsi.txt through a local webserver directly on the Kobo, so no changes necessary in your network.