Browser popups disabled by company policy - how can I authenticate against the router?

[Neiol]

Hi. Possibly a slightly unusual one with the router's auth mechanism.

I have two laptops, one corporate and one personal. I can login to the router fine with the credentials on my personal laptop, but not with the corporate one. The AD policy has locked down the display of popups on the installed browsers and I cannot add exceptions for e.g. 192.168.0.1 (the router). I also cannot install new software, so no ungoverned browser option.

How am I mean to authenticate using a browser that does not allow popups? Is there a login webpage that I can access instead? If not, why not?

Thanks very much

[seebee]

Hi @Neiol

I have exactly the same situation - but I just use my personal computer to access the NowTV hub! It did get me wondering, I think the corporate laptop is probably blocking basic authentication over HTTP (not HTTPS) rather than pop-ups per se.

I did experiment with URLs of the form

"http://username:password@192.168.0.1"... 

for example:

http://admin:nowtv@192.168.0.1
or
http://admin:nowtv@192.168.0.1/Now_TV_router_status.html

Both of these work fine on my personal laptop, without requesting credentials via a pop-up - but it is still blocked on my corporate laptop. (It has the side effect that every click generates a "syslog: Administrator login successful" line in the logs.)

Doesn't fix the problem using a corporate laptop, but interesting!

[Neiol]

I think you might be right there about SSL, thinking about it. I do wonder if a simple auth page would work, but that would assume policy let us pass login data in the clear.

EDIT: Tried your URL's and it wasn't blocked but the connection remained unauthorised (401 error).

[RoyB]

@Neiol 

I’m not sure what you are trying to achieve here?

Your basic problem is that you can’t maintain your Now router settings without pop-ups being allowed?
(I don’t have a Now router, so I can’t experience this).

But you are trying to maintain your home Now router from a corporate laptop, which won’t allow pop-ups, in your home where your personal laptop is probably also present and could be used for the purpose?

And how often do you have to access the router anyway?

Certainly, when I was using my corporate laptop from home, I had to accept the company-imposed limitations - I couldn’t ever use a USB stick - and it was pretty much just a case of setting up the domestic side from my personal laptop, and then going on the VPN on the corporate laptop into the company.

But then I did have the luxury of a desk with more than enough room for two laptops at once, which maybe you don’t have.

Another solution you might consider is to get your own router to replace the Now one, having first checked that it is maintainable without pop-ups; but I’m still not quite getting what your use case is here, that is presenting these difficulties,

[Neiol]

Thanks for your reply @RoyB 

A slightly tongue-in-cheek version of the use case might read as follows:

As a Now Hub Administrator

I need to be able to authenticate from whatever device I am connected with

So that I don't have to faff about and switch devices in order to perform a simple admin task

🙂

I did mention it was a bit unusual! The task I most often need to perform is flicking wi-fi on and off (the reasons for which I am not going to explain here). Suffice to say that I connect with a network cable a long way from the hub so it's not like it's handily placed, either.

I recently returned to the UK so I don't have any spare kit lying around e.g. a hub to share the network connection at my desk, nor another router with which to add complexity and possible unsupportability. Of course I could solve this problem by buying a suitable device but I prefer not to waste resources if there is a straightforward workaround that does not involve having wifi on permanently nor walking 20m to hook up my personal laptop (the corporate one needs to remains connected).

I am willing to accept this isn't going to be possible. But if you don't ask, you don't get! So I thought I'd ask. Cheers

[RoyB]

@Neiol 

You best bet then is to ask the Now Broadband team themselves what your options are. You can call them on one of the following numbers:-

Try 0330 041 2518, 0330 041 2462 or 0330 332 3050, and maybe 0800 759 1213