A walled garden, in captive-portal networking, is the allow-list of domains and IP addresses an unauthenticated guest device can reach before signing in - typically the splash page itself plus any social-login, payment, or asset domains the portal needs.
In captive-portal networking, a walled garden is the short allow-list of destinations a guest device can reach before it has signed in. Everything outside the list is blocked or redirected to the splash page. Without a walled garden the portal could not work at all: the guest has no internet yet, but their browser still needs to load the sign-in page and everything that page depends on.
Most "broken portal" tickets are walled-garden gaps: the social login button spins forever (provider domain missing), the page loads without images (CDN missing), or card payment fails (gateway missing). Providers periodically change their domains, so social login that worked at install can break months later until the allow-list is updated. When debugging a portal, checking the walled garden comes first.
Outside networking, "walled garden" describes closed platform ecosystems (an app store that controls what runs on a device, for example). The captive-portal usage is narrower and purely technical: a pre-authentication allow-list on a captive portal network.
A captive portal is a web page that public WiFi users see before being granted internet access - typically used to authenticate users, accept terms, and capture data such as email or social-login identity.
A splash page is the branded web page a captive portal shows a guest when they connect to a venue's WiFi, presenting the sign-in form, terms of use, marketing opt-in, and any promotional content before internet access is granted.
Social login is an authentication method that lets a user sign in to a service with an existing account from a provider such as Facebook, Google, or Apple, using the OAuth 2.0 authorisation framework, instead of creating a new username and password.
A Captive Network Assistant is the mini-browser that iOS, Android, macOS, and Windows open automatically when they detect a captive portal, triggered by a connectivity probe to a known URL that fails to return the expected response.
Capture guest emails, run automated email/SMS campaigns, and grow Google reviews - all from your existing WiFi.