"It looks like your WiFi Pineapple isn't connected to the internet"

[D0m1n7s]

Hi community, I have established an internet connection to my pineapple through the ICS configuration
on windows following the steps in the guide:
https://docs.hak5.org/wifi-pineapple/faq/establishing-an-internet-connection/configuring-ics-on-windows

I checked the connection by pinging google, everything ok.
In modules and packages, modules tab, check if I can get modules, everything ok.
I have tried to download a module, everything ok.
but when I click on the top right of the window, on the three dots and access the "internet connection" option, the legend appears:
Connect to the Internet?
It looks like your WiFi Pineapple isn't connected to the internet. Choose one of the options below to connect.
I would like to know if the message I receive is an error in the web interface or if there are actually problems with the internet connection on my pineapple, or if there is another way to verify if I have an internet connection, I have performed a factory reset on my pineapple and I still receive the same message, any suggestion would be of great help to me.

[dark_pyrro]

You can open a terminal on the Pineapple (either using ssh or the web UI based terminal), and ping some resource on the internet.

I would generally suggest to avoid using ICS and connect the Pineapple directly to a WiFi network using the wlan2 interface instead.

[DramaKing]

I concur with dark_pyrro. ICS has a bad rep.

[D0m1n7s]

On 11/8/2024 at 8:46 AM, dark_pyrro said:

You can open a terminal on the Pineapple (either using ssh or the web UI based terminal), and ping some resource on the internet.

I would generally suggest to avoid using ICS and connect the Pineapple directly to a WiFi network using the wlan2 interface instead.

Hello Dark_pyrro, I have followed your recommendation and I have connected my pineapple directly to a Wi-Fi network using the wlan2 interface, and I also carried out a test by pinging several resources on the internet and I see packet movement, but I still get the same message when accessing the internet connection:
"It seems that your Pineapple WiFi is not connected to the internet...", what could it be?

[dark_pyrro]

Post a screenshot of the ping response

[dark_pyrro]

Also check what IP address you get when connecting using the wlan2 interface.

Are you running any ESSID impersonation at the same time? I've seen other users connecting to the ESSIDs that the Pineapple is impersonating/spoofing, i.e. connecting back to the Pineapple itself and not connecting to the intended ("real") AP.

[D0m1n7s]

On 11/11/2024 at 11:35 AM, dark_pyrro said:

Post a screenshot of the ping response

[D0m1n7s]

On 11/11/2024 at 11:39 AM, dark_pyrro said:

Also check what IP address you get when connecting using the wlan2 interface.

Are you running any ESSID impersonation at the same time? I've seen other users connecting to the ESSIDs that the Pineapple is impersonating/spoofing, i.e. connecting back to the Pineapple itself and not connecting to the intended ("real") AP.

 

Are you running any ESSID impersonation at the same time?

no

[dark_pyrro]

What browser are you using? Any add-ons/plugins active? Tried other browsers?

[D0m1n7s]

2 hours ago, dark_pyrro said:

What browser are you using? Any add-ons/plugins active? Tried other browsers?

I use Chrome and I have tried disabling the plugins as you said and restarting the browser, same procedure in Firefox and Opera, and I just tried using an incognito tab and I get the same result.

[dark_pyrro]

Further things to check:

- Behind any captive portal?
- Using something in the network that may block stuff (such as Pi-hole)?
- Located in any geographic region that generally blocks access to Google services?
- Tried connecting the Pineapple wlan2 interface to some other WiFi network/AP?

 

As it seems (from analyzing traffic on the outbound interface of the Pineapple), it tries to resolve domain names using Google's 8.8.8.8 primary DNS server

In this context, the Pineapple is trying to resolve clients3.google.com specifically

The above is the only traffic the Pineapple generates if ongoing activity can be isolated to just letting the Pineapple check for internet connectivity (no clients connected), i.e. boot the Pineapple, log in to the web UI, let the Pineapple sit for a while, log out from the web UI, start recording traffic using Wireshark on some other device that acts as MITM between the Pineapple and the device that is supposed to enable internet access, log back in to the Pineapple, let it sit for 10 seconds (ish), stop the Wireshark recording

If there is no internet access, then the popup should show in the Pineapple web UI telling there is no internet connection
In the Wireshark capture, it shouldn't show anything else (related to the Pineapple checking for internet access) other than it tries to resolve clients3.google.com using 8.8.8.8, but failing and not getting any further

If there *IS* internet access, then the popup should *NOT* show (obviously) in the Pineapple web UI
In the Wireshark capture, it should show that it tries (and succeeds) to resolve clients3.google.com using 8.8.8.8
Furthermore, it also reaches out to clients3.google.com/generate_204

With this knowledge, it's pretty safe to say that this is how the Pineapple checks for internet access since trying to reach that URL is a part of many implementations looking for either internet access or any existing captive portal upstream. I.e. it's not specific to the Pineapple, it has just re-used existing methods to check for internet connectivity.

Also, if looking at the "pineapple" binary using a hex editor (or use strings), it's pretty easy to find traces of "http://clients3.google.com/generate_204" in the actual code.

Using http://clients3.google.com/generate_204 instead of other URLs (such as Google's "normal" URL http://www.google.com) is preferred since the generate_204 variant is easier to verify as it's simply returning back the 204 response code on a successful request, and not a full html page that isn't really needed.

[D0m1n7s]

On 11/13/2024 at 8:00 AM, dark_pyrro said:

Further things to check:

- Behind any captive portal?
- Using something in the network that may block stuff (such as Pi-hole)?
- Located in any geographic region that generally blocks access to Google services?
- Tried connecting the Pineapple wlan2 interface to some other WiFi network/AP?

 

As it seems (from analyzing traffic on the outbound interface of the Pineapple), it tries to resolve domain names using Google's 8.8.8.8 primary DNS server

In this context, the Pineapple is trying to resolve clients3.google.com specifically

The above is the only traffic the Pineapple generates if ongoing activity can be isolated to just letting the Pineapple check for internet connectivity (no clients connected), i.e. boot the Pineapple, log in to the web UI, let the Pineapple sit for a while, log out from the web UI, start recording traffic using Wireshark on some other device that acts as MITM between the Pineapple and the device that is supposed to enable internet access, log back in to the Pineapple, let it sit for 10 seconds (ish), stop the Wireshark recording

If there is no internet access, then the popup should show in the Pineapple web UI telling there is no internet connection
In the Wireshark capture, it shouldn't show anything else (related to the Pineapple checking for internet access) other than it tries to resolve clients3.google.com using 8.8.8.8, but failing and not getting any further

If there *IS* internet access, then the popup should *NOT* show (obviously) in the Pineapple web UI
In the Wireshark capture, it should show that it tries (and succeeds) to resolve clients3.google.com using 8.8.8.8
Furthermore, it also reaches out to clients3.google.com/generate_204

With this knowledge, it's pretty safe to say that this is how the Pineapple checks for internet access since trying to reach that URL is a part of many implementations looking for either internet access or any existing captive portal upstream. I.e. it's not specific to the Pineapple, it has just re-used existing methods to check for internet connectivity.

Also, if looking at the "pineapple" binary using a hex editor (or use strings), it's pretty easy to find traces of "http://clients3.google.com/generate_204" in the actual code.

Using http://clients3.google.com/generate_204 instead of other URLs (such as Google's "normal" URL http://www.google.com) is preferred since the generate_204 variant is easier to verify as it's simply returning back the 204 response code on a successful request, and not a full html page that isn't really needed.

Hi! I have already checked these points
- Behind a captive portal?
No
- Using something on the network that can block things (like Pi-hole)?
No
- Located in a geographic region that generally blocks access to Google services?
I have access to Google services.
- Did you try to connect the Pineapple wlan2 interface to any other WiFi network/AP?
Yes I have.

I tell you that the pop-up window “DOES NOT” appear in the web interface unless I access it by clicking on the three dots “internet connection”, there the legend does appear, but saying: It seems that your Pineapple WiFi is not connected to the internet… that is what I explained in the first post.
Question: In that window, should something appear like you are connected to the internet?