You can’t send packets except to the captive portal before you sign in to the network. That’s how captive portals work. Only after signing in can you then reach other servers, probably including your own.
Eeeeeee, I wouldn’t be so sure about that. I was able to ignore the captive portal in a few places by connecting Mullvad on port 123 (port used for NTP).
That’s what VPN companies want you to think. All services that transfer sensitive data use HTTPS so I don’t care.
Anyway, you can’t connect to a VPN server in the “sign in to the network” phase.
Openvpn to your own network.
You can’t send packets except to the captive portal before you sign in to the network. That’s how captive portals work. Only after signing in can you then reach other servers, probably including your own.
Eeeeeee, I wouldn’t be so sure about that. I was able to ignore the captive portal in a few places by connecting Mullvad on port 123 (port used for NTP).
Yes, you will need to connect to the landing page first.
As far as security concerns about sketchy VPN services, you can at least control your connection with openvpn.
Use tls-crypt to encrypt your initial connection.
Don’t use public Wi-Fi for anything sensitive regardless of your confidence.