The Captive Portal Check on iodéOS refers to how the operating system detects whether a Wi-Fi network requires user interaction to access the internet — like logging in or accepting terms on a web page — typically used in public Wi-Fi networks (cafes, airports, hotels, etc.).
iodéOS is a de-Googled, privacy-focused Android-based OS, and by default, it uses privacy-respecting alternatives to Google’s captive portal check service.
Captive Portal Check in Android (Standard)
On typical Android (especially Google-based ones), when you connect to a Wi-Fi network, the system tries to access a specific URL (e.g., http://connectivitycheck.gstatic.com/generate_204). If it doesn’t receive the expected response, Android assumes there’s a captive portal and prompts the user to log in.
Captive Portal Check in iodéOS
iodéOS employs a privacy-focused approach to captive portal detection by replacing Google’s default connectivity check URLs with alternatives that respect user privacy. Instead of using Google’s connectivitycheck.gstatic.com, iodéOS utilizes captiveportal.kuketz.de for its connectivity checks. kuketz-blog.de
This means that when your device connects to a Wi-Fi network, it sends a request to http://captiveportal.kuketz.de. If the response indicates restricted access (as is typical with captive portals), iodéOS prompts you to log in. This method ensures that your device doesn’t ping Google servers, thereby enhancing privacy.
If you wish to verify or modify these settings, you can use the following ADB commands:
Check current captive portal URLs:
adb shell settings get global captive_portal_http_url
adb shell settings get global captive_portal_https_url
Set custom captive portal URLs:
adb shell settings put global captive_portal_http_url "http://your.custom.server"
adb shell settings put global captive_portal_https_url "https://your.custom.server"
Disable captive portal detection entirely:
adb shell settings put global captive_portal_detection_enabled 0
Please note that disabling captive portal detection might prevent automatic login prompts on networks requiring authentication.
