Question Hospital WiFi access only on iPhone, not on Android phone ?

[peterjajennings]

Yesterday I was at the John Radcliff Hospital in Oxford UK. They have a guest WiFi account (no passwords required) OHU-Guest.

My daughter had no problems getting internet access on her iPhone, but the Chrome browser on my Google Pixel 8 Android phone said there was no internet access as did the Game "Township".
I fired up the Torr browser and that managed to get through but was very slow.

What could be the reason for this, different DNS servers perhaps?

 

[Ralston18]

Did you ask Hospital staff/IT folks?

My thought is that the hospital has blocked or perhaps restricted websites (e.g., gaming, gambling, etc.) to preserve bandwidth for patients and families.

All too often, people take (or try to take) advantage of Guest acccounts at the expense of those for whom the account access is truly intended.

Likely a local issue that only the IT folks can help you with.

Either by letting you know about the restrictions in place and/or the applicable configuration settings for your Android phone.

Ask the staff.

 

[peterjajennings]

Did you ask Hospital staff/IT folks?

My thought is that the hospital has blocked or perhaps restricted websites (e.g., gaming, gambling, etc.) to preserve bandwidth for patients and families.

All too often, people take (or try to take) advantage of Guest acccounts at the expense of those for whom the account access is truly intended.

Likely a local issue that only the IT folks can help you with.

Either by letting you know about the restrictions in place and/or the applicable configuration settings for your Android phone.

Ask the staff.

Thanks. Good points, but my question boils down to why was an iPhone OK and Android not?
My daughter and I were both trying to access the same sites.
The only two differences were the phones' operating systems and the browser.
I only tested it on a game to see if that had similar problems.
This was in the A&E department at the hospital, the medical staff were far too busy to answer such questions and their IT staff - who knows where they were on a Saturday? I might email them, see if they know.

 

[Ralston18]

This:

"but my question boils down to why was an iPhone OK and Android not?"

Fair question. May simply be a matter of the different browser codes/OS versions installed.

You may be able to get some sense of it all by comparing the configuration settings of the iPhone and Android.

What is different (if anything) with respect to the host guest Wifi system - starting with the login process?

Beyond that the details matter.

What software versions are being used on the iPhone and the Android phone? What Chrome versions are being used? Etc. etc..

Agree that the medical staff is too busy and even if not would be unable to answer much beyond some basic information regarding how to log into the guest Wifi. URL, login name, password.....

IT staff, hopefully, would be able to say something like, "X" works fine on the iPhone but we know that "X" on the Android has problems. But not the same "X" per se.

And the IT staff may be able to offer some corrective fix or other suggestion to help resolve "X" in part or in full.

As for Saturday night - likely doing backups or other maintenance. Such folks are often understaffed and over-worked. Especially all the more so with so many security and privacy concerns theses days.

Be kind.

 

[COLGeek]

Aside from Tor, is there any other VPN installed on the device?

 

[peterjajennings]

This:

"but my question boils down to why was an iPhone OK and Android not?"

Fair question. May simply be a matter of the different browser codes/OS versions installed.

You may be able to get some sense of it all by comparing the configuration settings of the iPhone and Android.

What is different (if anything) with respect to the host guest Wifi system - starting with the login process?

Beyond that the details matter.

What software versions are being used on the iPhone and the Android phone? What Chrome versions are being used? Etc. etc..

Agree that the medical staff is too busy and even if not would be unable to answer much beyond some basic information regarding how to log into the guest Wifi. URL, login name, password.....

IT staff, hopefully, would be able to say something like, "X" works fine on the iPhone but we know that "X" on the Android has problems. But not the same "X" per se.

And the IT staff may be able to offer some corrective fix or other suggestion to help resolve "X" in part or in full.

As for Saturday night - likely doing backups or other maintenance. Such folks are often understaffed and over-worked. Especially all the more so with so many security and privacy concerns theses days.

Be kind.

Thanks.

AFAIK both phones are up to date software wise. I let Android and the browsers update themselves automatically and so does my daughter with iOS.

The connection process is very similar. Settings > WiFi > look for networks > click on OHU-GUEST to connect > Connected.

I've emailed the hospital attn IT department asking them if this is a known problem or a isolated instance.
Thanks again

 

[Ralston18]

👍

 

[peterjajennings]

Aside from Tor, is there any other VPN installed on the device?

No I do not use one.

 

[cruisetung]

Many free public wifi will require you to press agree button on its webpage in order to connect and then browse the internet.

Just have no idea why there was iPhone/Android difference in your case,

 

[peterjajennings]

Your Google Pixel 8 likely faced issues with the OHU-Guest WiFi at John Radcliffe Hospital due to DNS conflicts or network restrictions. The hospital’s network may require specific DNS servers, which your phone’s custom settings (e.g., Google DNS) didn’t match, blocking Chrome and Township. Your daughter’s iPhone likely used the network’s default DNS, connecting fine. The Tor browser bypassed some restrictions via its routing, but slowly. Reset your Pixel’s DNS to automatic or clear Chrome’s cache to fix this.

Thanks.
That seems highly probable.
Looking at my DNS settings they were set to Private (cloudflare). I've turned that off so I assume it will revert to the default.
Hopefully I won't be in the JR's A&E any time soon 😀 but I will test it when I'm on their site.