[Mirror123]

One major annoyance with the way the Playbook connects to public WiFi hotspots is, prior to authentication into the captive portal and me entering the user/pass or code, obviously all HTTP traffic will pass through the portal gateway.

Now I don't have a problem with authenticating myself, however, the Playbook email system will insist on authenticating itself to Gmail servers / other Exchange servers, and will fail with an "Invalid Certificate" barf-complaint.

Why will the playbook not *pause* any email checking for e.g. 1 minute, while I authenticate?
Often I will try authenticate into the portal, and the blooming certificate error will jump onto my face 3-4 times, and every time I'll have to bring up the soft-keyboard again so that I can authenticate.
Anyone has an answer for this?

[taz323]

Don't know, don't seem to have a problem with mine, but don't use use the wifi much except at home, with the bridge really not to much of a need. Have tried deleting email info and reinstalling.

[Mirror123]

This happens regularly to me when I take my PB on my travels, I try desperately to login at a public Wifi and it will cycle through all the Gmail/Exchange passwords, and I have to [Cancel] each one. It's not acceptable to ask me to rechange my email passwords.

Moreover the cycle is typically:
1. Find public WiFi with portal, Connect.
2. Wait for the obligatory 1-2s for each account to be authenticated, then fail due to certificate error, and I have to cancel each
3. I navigate the captive portal, click [login] or whatever, type 1-2 letters. And with the OS frequently pausing anytime between 1s and 10s, I cannot quickly login and ...
4. Certificate failure again!!!

And this is exacerbated by the QNX not being particularly optimised, e.g. The top-row numbers on the virtual keyboard will frequently overlay the dialog box buttons, screaming a not-particularly-polished UX.

Honestly, I do want to BB10believe...

[pdej]

For me, when my PlayBook attempted to connect to a Captive Portal it locked up the machine. The wifi could not be switched off and all saved wifi connections disappeared. The machine would continue to consume power even when switched "off" with the power button until the battery was drained so that it would not switch on. Prior to that it would fail to restart and just cycle through its colour patterns (waited more than 15 minutes). The only way to get it back to life was to recharge and do a hard reset by pressing all 3 keys for 20 seconds.

I don't consider the device fit for purpose if it will not connect to public hotspots. It is supposed to be portable.

[brianatbb]

What do you count as public hotspots? I take my PB travelling and usually have no problem, but on reflection it seems most wifi connections are at hotels that are not exactly 'public'. I'll have to try others such as Starbucks, airports and the like to see how well they work. Generally, outside of hotels I use my HTC phone. Do you know if there is any way to see a list of all the wifi sites one has connected to? I can find it on my phone but not on my PB.