Using WiFi at Panera on Chromebook

Revealing the "captive portal" page is the key

Back in December of 2023 I shared my frustrations about not being able to connect my Chromebook to the internet at Panera Bread. You can read it here: https://myprojects.substack.com/p/captive-portal-at-panera-bread

Since then I retired my previous Acer Chromebook and upgraded to an Asus Chromebook Plus, which you can read about here: https://myprojects.substack.com/p/unboxing-the-asus-chromebook-plus

Brand new Chromebook in hand, I went into Panera and still failed to connect to internet. This really can't be that difficult, but it is. I spent hours "googling" for an answer. Surely someone has cracked this nut!

Here is a screen shot of what frustration looks like:

To be accurate, the Chromebook connects to Panera’s WiFi network, but the network does not provide internet access.

Great news: A friend (Neil O.) from the world of technology found the key. It's so simple, one might think Panera would make a simple sign on their wall. So here we go. Here are the steps to connect a Chromebook to the WiFi in a Panera Bread:

1. In Panera, power up the Chromebook and open a web browser.

2. Create or add a new bookmark, named "Panera WiFi".

3. In the URL field for this new bookmark, type this URL: http://neverssl.com/ (Notice there is no "s" after "http".) Save the bookmark.

4. Click on that new bookmark to open that URL.

The Panera portal page will appear! You may be asked to agree to terms, or you may just be immediately connected to the internet. (I've seen both, at two Panera franchises.)

That's it. Next time at Paneera, just open the browser and click that bookmark to open the captive portal page.

Here’s a screen shot of the bookmark I added to my Vivaldi browser:

The Wifi and internet are quite robust for a public facility. Hats off to Panera for that. Here is a screen shot of a speed test at Panera:

Yay! No more frustration getting to the internet on a Chromebook at Panera!