How to avoiding losing your current browsers websites when being redirected by wireless login pages

Firefox can be configured to not load tabs until selected. However, this is currently not supported in Chrome, so you'll need to disconnect from the Internet prior to opening the browser and reconnect to log in afterwards.

• In Firefox, open the Options page and check Don’t load tabs until selected (a similar option is currently not available in Chrome but may be added in a future version):

• Alternatively, you can simply disconnect from the Internet (e.g. by turning off Wi-Fi) before starting your web browser, then reconnect to the Internet and open your browser. Once the browser has finished trying to load tabs (successfully or otherwise), turn the Internet connection back on and open one page to log in. You can then load all other tabs (on Firefox, right-click on any tab and select Reload All Tabs).

You can also use a browser plugin to restore the session after logging in.

• On Firefox, the Session Manager add-on can be used to save and restore the session as needed. You can use this to reload the current session after logging in. For Chrome, the Session Buddy extension can be used to do the same.

One possibility is choose an otherwise useless browser like Internet Explorer (now renamed Microsoft Edge) and open it before you open your other browsers. Once you've used the burner browser to get past the redirect screen, open your other browsers.

The problems with this and most other solutions are:

• if you don't have a hardware switch for your wireless and your computer is sleep'd or hibernated, as soon as you restore, it will connect to the wifi and kill all your tabs
• if the login page pops up again after a certain time period, you lose all your tabs. e.g. Starbucks sometimes has you re-accept the TOA every 30 minutes or hour during busy times and the redirect kills all open tabs.