Can You Help Me With a Gogo Internet Problem?

by Gary Leff

I know all the jokes about Gogo internet (‘NoGo’). But I find it indispensable. It’s internet on an airplane moving at speeds in excess of 500 miles an hour. And the latest technology is much faster than the older installs, though they’ve had their challenges even with new satellite internet to be sure.

However I’ve got a unique problem it seems and no one at Gogo has any useful suggestions for me. I’ve tried several times.

My wife’s computer cannot log into Gogo inflight internet. She has no problem connecting and using any other internet. I’m able to access the connection just fine on my laptop when sitting next to her, and she’s able to access it with her (Android) phone. So the problem is specific to her Lenovo Yoga 900 running Windows 10.

She can see the Gogo Inflight internet connection, and she can connect to it. But she cannot resolve the gogo page (http://airborne.gogoinflight.com) to log in.

  • I’ve deleted the saved Gogo connection profile
  • I’ve ensured her wireless drivers are up to date
  • DNS is being obtained automatically
  • No static IP is set

I’m out of ideas. So I’m hoping you might have some.

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  2. This may be way too simple, but could it be the browser? What browser is she using, and has she tried any different ones from the laptop?

  3. Downloading a different internet browser and trying to log on through there might help. That has worked for me in the past.

  6. Can’t help with that other than the expensive fix of getting a new computer. The airborne internet issue I have is knowing where it is available on international flights. Is there a map that shows the coverage area? That would be helpful in scheduling sleep and movie time.

  13. Sounds like you are getting to the log in page. If you are i have no idea if not i usually launch firefox which helps.

  15. Ensure no proxy server is set (some corporations have this). Regardless of browser, this is centrally managed in Windows. I’ll use Internet Explorer in my example below (not Edge), however, the pop up box with the settings will be the same regardless of browser.

    Click the gear icon located on the top right
    Click Internet Options
    Click Connections
    Click LAN Settings
    Ensure the only box that is checked is “Automatically Detect Settings”

  16. How often does she travel alone vs with you? It mostly with you, you could just use the Connectify software you can download for windows and replicate your connection on gogo. 99% sure that will work for when you travel alone.

    Are you using Lenovo’s WiFi software or the default windows software? I’ve had the identical problem with gogo a few years ago and I solved it by going into network settings finding the TCP/IP protocol from the list of protocols listed under my wireless card and deleting the DNS numbers and setting it to automatically get DNS info from host. I know you said you did something similar but I’m wondering if you went about it this way or another way. It almost definitely sounds like a DNS issue which is why you can’t access the gogo login page as you somewhere hidden have other DNS numbers hidden deep in the computer. Best of luck!

  17. Hi Gary-I’d suggest working with Gogo Customer Care to see how this can be resolved. I work at Gogo and would be happy to connect you with our team, feel free to send me a PM.

  18. @Mark You actually don’t even need that. Windows 10 has a mobile hotspot built in. Gary can connect to the internet and then establish a hotspot for his wife to connect to. I do this all the time to share Gogo with my phone and other family members if traveling with me.

  21. @Yossarian – gosh, i have tried this numerous times, i eventually get sloughed off onto chat after their ideas don’t work and chat help is useless (leaving aside that she can’t access chat while onboard since she can’t connect in the first place)

  22. Step 1 is always rebooting.

    Step 2 is to renew the DHCP lease. In Mac it is:

    System Preferences > Network > Advanced > TCP/IP > Renew DHCP lease

  24. I’ve been going back and forth Detroit to/from Beijing (VPN essential in PRC) lately on Delta w/GoGo, and I had the same problem, until I disabled my VPN. Once I was connected, I could turn the VPN back on.

  26. Did the computer have any type of Malware infection recently? Sometimes those leave rouge registry keys around. Malwarebytes is a great free program to run and see if anything is on the computer that seems fishy.

  28. 1) Try to log on as a different user on her computer. Set up a new user if necessary.
    2) Make sure she is not on a VPN.
    3) Make sure Antivirus is not being super-protective. Disable it temporarily if possible.
    4) If she has any type of backup software going to the cloud on, disable it temporarily.
    5) Buy an inexpensive, small USB Wifi device, and try to connect to GoGo through that device.
    6) If you are connecting through a 802.11a (5Gz) connection, then try the 802.11n (or 2.4Gz) connection instead, or vice versa.

  29. Not really a solution, but just log on using her droid and create a mobile hotspot that everyone can use. Works with my Samsung galaxy s8.

  30. Gary I’ve had similar problems and it was always related to the browser (like others have said here before). I’ve had to clear and reset the browser to get it to work, and once I gave up and used a different browser to get it to work.

    Good luck Gary!!

  32. It could be a number of things, if a GoGo employee is actually here, (s)he can probably escalate your case to their technical teams and get you past the usual CS reps.

    My money is on out of date DNS cache or cache corruption.

    1.Press start
    2. Type cmd
    3. Once the DOS looking command prompt pops up, type in ipconfig /flushdns, press enter

    This has no ill effects, you can do this on a perfectly healthy computer with no ill effects even if DNS wasn’t a problem to begin with.

    Windows network troubleshooter is actually very good at self resolving or otherwise pointing out what may be wrong and can be accessed by right clicking the network icon on taskbar and clicking ‘Troubleshoot problems’. It is capable of flushing DNS itself as well.

    I’m not familiar with GoGo internet, but if it is anything like Marriott Middle East WiFi connect page and you guys pay once and then add multiple devices, it could also be as simple as not having added her device.

    A screenshot of the error page when she tries to access the GoGo page and any other website (say bing.com) would help.

    But honestly, even if everything else fails, GoGo tech team can certainly fix this with access to your log reports. They have positive incentive to do so (money) and fear of negative outcomes if they don’t (you’ll keep complaining about it on blog :P)

  33. 2 other possibly relevant things:

    1. Firefox has its own Proxy and network settings that can be independent of the host OS (Chrome and Edge will follow Windows/OS defined settings), so if you’re using Firefox, switch to Chrome or Edge

    2. The Windows Internet options has a Security tab and if your security is set to highest or Custom level (and each of the 4 types has its own level), it could be blocking funky ways GoGo is using to load its portal upon connection. It should however, work with Default or lower settings since that’s presumably what GoGo targets.

  35. Similar to what Jason said, try to access the portal by IP address. I frequently have to do this on my phone, but you can do it on a PC as well.

    Once connected to the network, open a command prompt (Windows + R, cmd, ENTER), then type in ipconfig and press enter. Take the IP address that appears under Default Gateway and try it in a browser.

  36. Is the error definitely “Cannot resolve gogoinflight.com”? If it is, no number of cookie removals will help and the issue is one of very few:

    As a first step, confirming that the DNS server addresses allocated to your wife’s laptop via DHCP match those allocated to your own will narrow down the options further.

  37. Wow! I’m blown away by the number of “fixes” suggested to what, on the surface, seems like a simple enough question. This suggests to me that one or more technically proficient bloggers need to write a “keeper” post on the ins and outs of connecting to and using GoGo inflight; e.g., best browser, to VPN or not to VPN, computer settings, computer maintenance issues, etc. Such a post would benefit a LOT of readers, not just Gary!

  38. I had a similar issue with a cruise ship wifi. All my IOS and Android devices could login but not my win 10 laptop.

    A network reset fixed the problem

    Select the Start button, then select Settings > Network & Internet > Status > Network reset.
    On the Network reset screen, select Reset now > Yes to confirm.

    After this, you may need to setup VPN or other net customization.

  39. Short of resetting the network adapter (Right Click wifi symbol, choose troubleshoot problems, choose ‘have a different problem’, choose ‘Use a Specific Network Adapter’, choose ‘All Network Adapters’ and hit next), I find that if I cannot log on to a start page to log in, I have tremendous luck trying to browse to xe.com first. I think it’s because that page is always self-updating with the latest currency figures, and that helps spark a log on page when trying to connect to new wifi in a new place. Hope that helps!

  40. Hey Gary,

    I encounter the same issue frequently when trying to use hotspots with my work laptop. This fix works about 75% of the time:

    1. Open the Command Prompt by typing cmd into the windows search bar.

    2. Type ipconfig and hit enter.

    3. Look for the IP address of the Default Gateway listed in the Wireless LAN Adapter section.

    4. Type the above IP address into the browser and hit enter.

    This will usually redirect you to the WiFi login page of hotspots. Occasionally it will still fail to load.

    Hope this works!

  42. I have had this problem, and from my research it seemed to be an issue with Chrome (and perhaps other browsers) and https vs http; with GOGO liking http better than https as a trigger.

    If it does not connect for me I steer my browser to http://www.cnn.com and that always does the trick (Nnote: this is NOT an endorsement for CNN, but that one appears to bypass the https issue).

  43. Gary, this is super easy. It happens to me all the time. It’s some kind of cache issue.

    Just have her type in some random URL she has never been to. E.g. http://www.abcdefg.com and it will bring up the Airborne page.

  44. The last time this happened, I used Google Chrome Incognito Mode and it worked fine.

  45. Gary, as others have said going to an IP address instead of a hostname will usually force the router to give you the login page. You shouldn’t have to go as far as jumping through hoops like running ipconfig, something as simple as http://8.8.8.8/ should work.

  46. Solved: I hadn’t the exact problem. Window 7. Solution: open Cmd … ipconfig /release
    Then … ipconfig /renew

    I was back up immediately

  47. Hi,

    Had this issue. Pixel 2 xl connected no problem. When attempting on Lenovo x1 I would get connection errors. Tried to go to different pages like ESPN.com etc. Then tried to access the correct landing page through chrome, firefox and edge. No luck.

    What did work:
    Go to control panel
    Network connections
    Right click your WiFi and select properties
    Select internet protocol version 4 then click properties button
    Select obtain DNS server address automatically.

    This worked for me. Previous to this change my DNS was set to Google servers. After change save and reconnect. Hope that helps.

  49. I had a similar problem but the solution has nothing to do with the myriad of network settings on my PC. It turns out that Gogo only allows 5 unique devices to logon within each monthly cycle. The 6th device is denied, but there is no error message or any indication why Gogo says you are connected, but in fact you are not. I contacted Gogo via chat message (that plus delta.com continued to work while everything else did not) and they gave me some free passes to cover me until the end of my monthly cycle.

  50. Hey Gary!
    I’m sure you’ve figured this out by now but I FINALLY figured out the solution.

    Go to internet setting… advanced… DNS… and clear the 8.8.8.8 server (which is googled automatic) and it will work like a charm

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