Travelling--strange network issue

[MacInWin]

My wife and I are on the road, and I'm having a strange networking issue. Her Mac (exactly the same as mine in my profile), running Catalina, connects to the hotel WiFi exactly as it should. As I am in one of the higher levels of the frequent users group, I get complementary higher speed. So when the WiFi first connected for her, she got a menu to either enter the room information or the information to join to the free higher speed network that my status has earned. No problems with her Mac, iPad, iPhone, nor my iPhone and iPad. My MBP, however, is not giving that same prompt to enter the data, but connecting to the network, but being blocked from the Internet. And I cannot get it to open the dialog to let me enter my account information to get logged in. So for now, I'm working by tethering my iPhone to the MBP by USB cable, then WiFi to the hotel network with the iPhone and use the iPhone as a link to get to the internet for my MBP. Clumsy, but it works.

However, I want to direct connect my MBP so I don't have to go through the tethering process on the iPhone. I've gone into System Preferences and erased/delete all references to the hotel system altogether on both WiFi and Ethernet setup, then turned WiFi on again and let it discover the hotel network, but it then immediately connects without the dialog that shows up on all the other devices that are successfully using the hotel LAN.

Rebooted several times. No changes. As soon as it identifies the network, it attaches, but shows that the network is insecure and that I should change my router (d'uh, it's the HOTEL router), to WPA2 (which it already is), and try again. But it does NOT show the login dialog from the hotel at any time. Ran a Wireless Diagnostics report. It shows ping fails. Tried ping from Terminal, and it fails to find anything. Basically the WiFi interface "thinks" it is connected, but is not communicating. This same Mac works perfectly on my home network, connecting by WiFi to the home router with zero issues.

For now, WiFi is OFF, I'm using the iPhone through the USB Cable and it is on the WiFi network at the hotel, logged in the high speed net. But I should not have to do that.

So, network gurus, what to try next?

 

[lclev]

Do you have any pop up blocker on your web browser?

Lisa

 

[ferrarr]

Do you know how many devices customers/guests are allowed to connect using, and/or if there is a limit?

 

[MacInWin]

I tried blocker on and off and no change.

No limit on the connections, I'm allowed as much as I want -- Never had this issue before.

It works perfectly with the iPhone into the WiFi and the USB tether, but it's strange I can't go direct. Oh, well, let's chalk it up to stray bits somewhere.

 

[ferrarr]

Have you compared settings/preferences between yours and your wife's MBP's?

 

[MacInWin]

Yes, and I cannot see any difference between them. I'm sure I'm just missing something, but it's not really worth stressing over, the work-around is working. Just started the thread to see if anybody had seen it before and had a quick fix.