Hotel, cafe and public Wi-Fi

The terms page

Hotel, cafe, airport and store networks nearly always open a page, “tap I agree”, “enter your room number”, before they let a device online. The ticker has no browser and no finger; it can never get past that page, and there is no setting that changes it. The setup page’s second welcome card says: Hotel, cafe, airport and store Wi-Fi almost always opens a terms page (a "tap I Agree" screen) before letting anything online. I have no browser and no finger, so I can never get past it. It's not a setting. It just can't work there.

Public Wi-Fi: hotels, cafes and airports show a terms page that I can’t agree to for you

How the ticker tells you

Picking an open network on the setup page shows: This network is open. Hotel/cafe/store Wi-Fi usually makes you tap "I agree" on a web page, and I have no browser to do that.
If the ticker joins such a network and its internet check meets the terms page instead of its server, the setup page says: Something on this Wi-Fi answered in my server's place, so I can't get through. A sign-in page does that, and so does a content filter. Hold on - don't tap Connect again: I'm finishing up on this network anyway and I'll show you my address in a moment. If there's a sign-in page, open it on your phone and sign in, and that usually clears it. Signing in on your phone sometimes unblocks the ticker as well, on networks that count devices by the router rather than one at a time; it does not always. Do not tap Connect while that message is up: the ticker is finishing setup on this network and a second attempt cancels it.
The ticker still saves such a network and restarts onto it, so that a network that only looked blocked during setup is not lost. If the block is real, the glass shows the start screen with Something here blocks me. / I can't get past this network. / Use home Wi-Fi or a hotspot. / iOS: Maximize Compatibility. in turn, and once running, the signal card says This network is blocking me.

What works instead

A phone hotspot: on an iPhone with Maximize Compatibility turned on, on Android with the hotspot band set to 2.4 GHz. See Using a phone hotspot.