EEngr
24th May 2013, 19:52
A curious behavior began the other day. I wander into my local Starbucks from time to time to grab a cup of coffee and free WiFi as I have done many times in the past. Starbucks' WiFi (at least in my area) is provided by AT&T. I connect and go through the obligatory login page (click to accept terms, etc.) and get dumped onto Starbucks obligatory ad page. No problem. Then I hit my 'Home' button (Google). Blam! back to the login page!
After experimenting with this a few times, I skip my 'Home' button and directly enter a URL (more on this later) and get connected just fine. But then, anything I visit that has anything to do with Google and I get tossed back to the AT&T/Starbucks login page. And that's a nuisance, since it seems that practically everything on the InterWebs has some connection to Google, Google analytics or a banner add served by one of Google's minions.
The test URL I tried was my own public web page, which I am certain is totally unreliant on Google. A few other sites work, some with JavaScript disabled so as to prevent the loading of banners and other sneaky links. But these days, its getting pretty damned tough to surf the Web without JS.
So, before submitting a complaint, does anyone know of an AT&T-Google pissing match? Has Google finally poked the sleeping dragon once too many times with its fiber rollouts? When I do contact the help link on the login page, I suspect the answer will be colored by which tech support division handles the ticket. Likewise, most of my IT world sources have a definite lean one way or the other with respect to Google or AT&T (or Starbucks for that matter). It'll bee like asking for advice on vi vs emacs, a Holy War. People here seem to have a bit less skin in the game.
After experimenting with this a few times, I skip my 'Home' button and directly enter a URL (more on this later) and get connected just fine. But then, anything I visit that has anything to do with Google and I get tossed back to the AT&T/Starbucks login page. And that's a nuisance, since it seems that practically everything on the InterWebs has some connection to Google, Google analytics or a banner add served by one of Google's minions.
The test URL I tried was my own public web page, which I am certain is totally unreliant on Google. A few other sites work, some with JavaScript disabled so as to prevent the loading of banners and other sneaky links. But these days, its getting pretty damned tough to surf the Web without JS.
So, before submitting a complaint, does anyone know of an AT&T-Google pissing match? Has Google finally poked the sleeping dragon once too many times with its fiber rollouts? When I do contact the help link on the login page, I suspect the answer will be colored by which tech support division handles the ticket. Likewise, most of my IT world sources have a definite lean one way or the other with respect to Google or AT&T (or Starbucks for that matter). It'll bee like asking for advice on vi vs emacs, a Holy War. People here seem to have a bit less skin in the game.