thread Re: SquarePOS Terminal connects the US when in Australia in Hardware Setup & Troubleshooting

SquarePOS Terminal connects the US when in Australia

mrlombadge — Sun, 21 Sep 2025 11:11:54 GMT

Hi, I'm testing the SquarePOS Terminal in Australia and we noticed it seems slow to respond.

There is a specific firewall rule that allows all protocols / ports to the internet and we were physically near an Enterprise grade WiFi access point with Gb Fibre internet.

In the Firewall I noticed all traffic destinations are in the US rather than the "Asia/Pacific" addresses in the Troubleshooting guide.

Is this normal as it would contribute to the (lack of) responsiveness?

Is there a way to change the device to use "Asia/Pacific" addresses/services?

NB: device is up to date.

Re: SquarePOS Terminal connects the US when in Australia

Arie — Wed, 16 Feb 2022 04:24:16 GMT

Hey @mrlombadge,

Thanks for checking that your Square Terminal is up to date already!

Is the network you're connecting the terminal to a captive portal network? At this time, these types of networks are not supported with the Square Terminal. I'm also wondering if you're using a Telstra Smart Modem™ Gen 2?

You might need to change the default security setting from WPA2 PSK to WPA + WPA2 PSK before Square Terminal can connect to your network. Here’s how:

Open a web browser on your computer and type 192.168.0.1 in the address bar
Enter your username and password at the modem login page
- Note: the default username is admin and the default password is Telstra
Click the WI-FI icon at the top of the screen
Scroll to the Security Mode setting and change it to WPA + WPA2 PSK > Save
On Square Terminal, tap the three horizontal lines in the top left corner to access your navigation menu
Select Settings and scroll to Device
Tap Network > toggle Wi-Fi off then back on and enter the credentials to connect to the network from your modem.

Please let us know how you go!

Re: SquarePOS Terminal connects the US when in Australia

mrlombadge — Wed, 16 Feb 2022 04:51:06 GMT

Hi,

No this is a venue with Meru Wireless APs. No captive portal.

Are you indicating WPA is preferred/required? (because I'd rather not enable it. We'll fail our Audit)

NB: the Wireless connects but the device is slow.

The question was why it connects to the US and not the Asia Pacific services? Can this be changed?

Re: SquarePOS Terminal connects the US when in Australia

mrlombadge — Sun, 20 Feb 2022 21:57:04 GMT

Hi Arie,

Do you have any information on why the Terminal connects to the US and not the Asia Pacific services?

Re: SquarePOS Terminal connects the US when in Australia

Arie — Sun, 20 Feb 2022 22:15:11 GMT

Hey @mrlombadge,

I've reached out to our hardware team to gather a bit more information as to if this can be changed. I'll keep you in the loop and tag you with an update here!

Re: SquarePOS Terminal connects the US when in Australia

mrlombadge — Sun, 20 Mar 2022 21:48:06 GMT

Hi Arie,

Its now been a month and we've been very patient. Do you have an answer?

Re: SquarePOS Terminal connects the US when in Australia

Arie — Wed, 23 Mar 2022 05:59:37 GMT

My honest apologies for not following up with you earlier, @mrlombadge. The destination on the device itself can't be edited. If you enforce restrictions on what domains can be accessed from within your network, Square devices require the following domains to be whitelisted.

For HTTPS traffic, all subdomains of:

squareup.com
In the future, you’re able to view updates and monitor the situation at issquareup.com.
squarecdn.com
square.site
api.mapbox.com

As well as the following FQDNs:

For NTP traffic, all subdomains of:

time.android.com

Re: SquarePOS Terminal connects the US when in Australia

mrlombadge — Wed, 23 Mar 2022 21:00:56 GMT

Hi Arie,

I have all those FQDN allowed explicitly as well as the IP Address ranges as defined in your troubleshooting documentation.

However this still does not answer my question.

I am not getting traffic blocked.

Traffic is going to the USA from Australia; rather than to Australia from Australia.

You have local IP Ranges to unblock in your documentation but they aren't used?

This results in slow transactions. Latency to the USA across 15,000kms is huge.