browse
The Umbrella Roaming Security module for AnyConnect and Cisco Secure Client today implements a mechanism to detect Captive portals. These Captive portals are your digital "gatekeepers" when you're connecting to public or guest Wi-Fi networks, such as those in airports, hotels, and cafes. They may request actions from you, such as payment, authentication, or agreement to terms of service, before granting you access to the Internet.
Cisco had implemented active captive portal detection by probing for a known Microsoft URL at http://www.msftconnecttest.com/connecttest.txt with 'Microsoft Connect Test' as the expected body content, and comparing the actual content with what we expected; this is effective at finding captive portals that return a 200 OK but modify the content.
In the coming weeks Cisco will be changing the behavior of Captive Portal detection to instead start checking for http://connecttest.cisco.io to return a 200 OK and 'Success' as the content. Please be aware that as a result of this change, you may notice network traffic directed to this new Cisco domain. Rest assured, if for any reason this domain is not reachable, our client will seamlessly revert to using the existing Microsoft URL and other passive detection methods to ensure your uninterrupted access to Wi-Fi networks.
We look forward to this rollout and are confident that it will contribute to a more seamless and secure online experience for you.