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Devices that infer that connectivity to one site implies connectivity to the Internet are flawed. Having connectivity to one site means only that a route exist

by kenrose 12y ago

Devices that infer that connectivity to one site implies connectivity to the Internet are flawed. Having connectivity to one site means only that a route exists between you and the remote host. That's it. It says nothing about any other site. It's generally not good to do "Internet connectivity" checks. Just check to see if the site you want to connect to is responding. In the case of Samsung, who cares if samsung.com is down if I want YouTube. Just connect to YouTube and if that's down, then tell me. The only useful exception to the above that I've seen is for Wi-Fi hotspot detection (e.g., checking a known response from Microsoft NCSI). The key difference here is that if the NCSI server is down or not responding, the user is not blocked from trying to connect.

deleted 12y ago
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EvanAnderson 12y ago
Microsoft published a description of the communications, too: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc766017(v=ws.10).aspx http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc766017(v=ws.10)...
- threedaymonk 12y ago
  It's quite useful, so implemented it in bash: https://github.com/threedaymonk/ncsi https://github.com/threedaymonk/ncsi
kiallmacinnes 12y ago
So, yes, they are broken when you think about them like that. But, they cover the 95% use case... That case where most people say "The Internet is down" ;) Giving the 95% a good experience should always be prioritised above giving 100% of users a mediocre experience.
- kiallmacinnes 12y ago
  I always wish people would reply when downvoting.. A -1 without a comment could mean a million different things.. :(
- ryandrake 12y ago
  Browsing samsung.com on ones TV's close to a 0% use case, not a 95% use case for users. Therefore checking to make sure samsung.com is up helps about 0% of their users.
- zachlipton 12y ago
  See, that doesn't really describe the situation here. The internet was working just fine, but samsung.com was down. As a result, the TV wouldn't let users get to Netflix, Amazon Instant Video, or other services because it insisted it was offline, even though those services were working perfectly fine. The problem is that that for virtually every user, the TV was insisting "the internet is down," but their connections were working just fine.

by kenrose 12y ago

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

EvanAnderson 12y ago

Microsoft published a description of the communications, too: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc766017(v=ws.10).aspx http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc766017(v=ws.10)...

threedaymonk 12y ago
It's quite useful, so implemented it in bash: https://github.com/threedaymonk/ncsi https://github.com/threedaymonk/ncsi

kiallmacinnes 12y ago

So, yes, they are broken when you think about them like that. But, they cover the 95% use case... That case where most people say "The Internet is down" ;) Giving the 95% a good experience should always be prioritised above giving 100% of users a mediocre experience.

kiallmacinnes 12y ago
I always wish people would reply when downvoting.. A -1 without a comment could mean a million different things.. :(
ryandrake 12y ago
Browsing samsung.com on ones TV's close to a 0% use case, not a 95% use case for users. Therefore checking to make sure samsung.com is up helps about 0% of their users.
zachlipton 12y ago
See, that doesn't really describe the situation here. The internet was working just fine, but samsung.com was down. As a result, the TV wouldn't let users get to Netflix, Amazon Instant Video, or other services because it insisted it was offline, even though those services were working perfectly fine. The problem is that that for virtually every user, the TV was insisting "the internet is down," but their connections were working just fine.