<div dir="ltr"><div><div>Hi Dan,<br><br>I believe ROBIN's trick was to include local hostname entries for the router, e.g. <a href="http://my.open-mesh.com">my.open-mesh.com</a>, in into the node's dnsmasq config.<br>
<br>Likewise, dnsmasq supports storing a local cache on the node, which could be enhanced/enlarged to ensure a good chance that a commonly requested URLs (<a href="http://google.com">google.com</a>, <a href="http://yahoo.com">yahoo.com</a>, etc) has entries in the local cache. Indeed, the local cache could also be explicitly seeded on power-up with such popular entries. I don't believe the RAM requirements for 150 entries vs 10000 entries in the local DNS cache are that severe.<br>
<br></div>This might allow nodogsplash to stand a good chance of successfully caching users' port 80 sessions in the event of an Internet outage and display an appropriate portal page (e.g. announcement of the outage).<br>
<br></div>This approach would assume the node normally has an Internet connection, and that outages are infrequent.<br><div><br><div><br></div></div></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Sep 12, 2013 at 11:46 AM, Dan Staples <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:danstaples@opentechinstitute.org" target="_blank">danstaples@opentechinstitute.org</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">The captive portal can't intercept port 80 requests before DNS requests<br>
because the client doesn't actually make a port 80 HTTP request until<br>
they get a DNS resolution of the site they are trying to reach.<br>
<br>
I would be really curious to know how ROBIN captive portaled during<br>
internet outages.<br>
<div class="im"><br>
On 09/12/2013 12:02 PM, Ben West wrote:<br>
> Hi All,<br>
><br>
> Is nodogsplash still being investigated as a stand-alone splash page<br>
> solution? My understanding is that nodog would intercept users' port 80<br>
> sessions before any DNS queries were actually launched.<br>
><br>
> I realize the version of nodog available until just recently was lacking<br>
> key bandwidth throttling features, but I can share that a new nodog was<br>
> released a few days ago. The Changelog, unfortunately, doesn't indicate<br>
> that throttling has yet been ported to the new 3.x kernel.<br>
> <a href="https://github.com/nodogsplash/nodogsplash/releases/tag/v0.9_beta9.9.8" target="_blank">https://github.com/nodogsplash/nodogsplash/releases/tag/v0.9_beta9.9.8</a><br>
><br>
> Anyway, on the old ROBIN firmware, the nodog captive portal would indeed<br>
> continue to display even in case of Internet outage, since the portal<br>
> content is stored locally on the node. I had used that very capability<br>
> to (manually) adjust content on nodes' local splash page and announce<br>
> outages. This unfortunately didn't work out as a reliable means to<br>
> announce outages, since the ROBIN firmware itself would later detect the<br>
> Internet outage and disable the nodes' AP entirely (a feature which<br>
> couldn't be disabled, and got annoying very quickly).<br>
><br>
> As for a node detecting whether it has Internet access, I think Freifunk<br>
> scripted solution for that in the freifunk-gwcheck package.<br>
</div>> Unfortunately, luci,<a href="http://subsignal.org" target="_blank">subsignal.org</a> <<a href="http://subsignal.org" target="_blank">http://subsignal.org</a>> appears to be<br>
<div class="im">> down now, so I can't cite the source code.<br>
><br>
> This appears to be clone:<br>
> <a href="https://dev.openwrt.org.cn/browser/feeds/luci/trunk/luci/luci/contrib/package/freifunk-gwcheck" target="_blank">https://dev.openwrt.org.cn/browser/feeds/luci/trunk/luci/luci/contrib/package/freifunk-gwcheck</a><br>
><br>
><br>
><br>
> On Thu, Sep 12, 2013 at 7:24 AM, Dan Staples<br>
> <<a href="mailto:danstaples@opentechinstitute.org">danstaples@opentechinstitute.org</a><br>
</div><div><div class="h5">> <mailto:<a href="mailto:danstaples@opentechinstitute.org">danstaples@opentechinstitute.org</a>>> wrote:<br>
><br>
> Hi Dan,<br>
><br>
> Unfortunately, the splash screen currently requires internet access to<br>
> function. This is because the captive portal program intercepts and<br>
> modifies responses to clients' DNS requests, and those responses only<br>
> occur if DNS servers are available in the first place. With no internet<br>
> access, no DNS response, no splash screen.<br>
><br>
> I have worked on creating a captive portal solution for<br>
> non-internet-connected Commotion networks, and it in fact works. The<br>
> problem is that there is currently no way to have a router auto-detect<br>
> whether it is currently connected to the internet or not, and then<br>
> auto-configure its captive portal to do the right thing. If your network<br>
> suffered an internet outage, you would have to either restart DNSmasq on<br>
> each node, or reboot all the nodes, in order for the splash screen to<br>
> continue to function. And then do the same thing once internet access<br>
> was restored.<br>
><br>
> There might be a way to run a script periodically to check for internet<br>
> connectivity, and then restart DNSmasq if it detects an outage. I'll try<br>
> to work on that and see what I can do.<br>
><br>
> Do you know what versions of Firefox and Chrome didn't work with the<br>
> splash page? If you can find out, I can look into that too.<br>
><br>
> cheers,<br>
> Dan<br>
><br>
><br>
> On 09/12/2013 07:40 AM, Dan Hastings wrote:<br>
> > Yesterday we had our first large internet outage since setting up our<br>
> > first few commotion nodes. I have our homepage in the our<br>
> computer lab<br>
</div></div>> > set to <a href="http://google.com" target="_blank">google.com</a> <<a href="http://google.com" target="_blank">http://google.com</a>> but since we are on an open<br>
<div><div class="h5">> network the commotion<br>
> > splash screen comes up first. This is great since it makes it easier<br>
> > for students to access local applications without having to<br>
> memorize the<br>
> > location of the applications on the network.<br>
> ><br>
> > However, when our net went out the splash screen did not come up.<br>
> I was<br>
> > wondering if anyone knew a way to set the splash screen so it will<br>
> come<br>
> > up regardless if their is internet access. Should the splash screen<br>
> > appear anyway regardless and am I'm missing something in the captive<br>
> > portal settings? Is there way to set the splash screen as a homepage?<br>
> ><br>
> > Also, I've noticed that some students who are running older<br>
> versions of<br>
> > Firefox and chrome in windows 7 would not be redirected to the splash<br>
> > screen and could not access the internet. After updating their<br>
> browsers<br>
> > we seemed to get to the splash screen fine to allow internet<br>
> access. Not<br>
> > sure if this has been a problem in the past or of I'm missing<br>
> something<br>
> > as well.<br>
> ><br>
> > Any guidance or help would be much appreciated.<br>
> ><br>
> > Thanks,<br>
> ><br>
> > Dan<br>
> > _______________________________________________<br>
> > Commotion-discuss mailing list<br>
> > <a href="mailto:Commotion-discuss@lists.chambana.net">Commotion-discuss@lists.chambana.net</a><br>
</div></div>> <mailto:<a href="mailto:Commotion-discuss@lists.chambana.net">Commotion-discuss@lists.chambana.net</a>><br>
<div class="im">> > <a href="https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/commotion-discuss" target="_blank">https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/commotion-discuss</a><br>
> ><br>
><br>
> --<br>
> Dan Staples<br>
><br>
> Open Technology Institute<br>
> <a href="https://commotionwireless.net" target="_blank">https://commotionwireless.net</a><br>
> OpenPGP key: <a href="http://disman.tl/pgp.asc" target="_blank">http://disman.tl/pgp.asc</a><br>
> Fingerprint: 2480 095D 4B16 436F 35AB 7305 F670 74ED BD86 43A9<br>
> _______________________________________________<br>
> Commotion-discuss mailing list<br>
> <a href="mailto:Commotion-discuss@lists.chambana.net">Commotion-discuss@lists.chambana.net</a><br>
</div>> <mailto:<a href="mailto:Commotion-discuss@lists.chambana.net">Commotion-discuss@lists.chambana.net</a>><br>
<div class="im">> <a href="https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/commotion-discuss" target="_blank">https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/commotion-discuss</a><br>
><br>
><br>
><br>
><br>
> --<br>
> Ben West<br>
</div>> <a href="mailto:me@benwest.name">me@benwest.name</a> <mailto:<a href="mailto:me@benwest.name">me@benwest.name</a>><br>
<div class="HOEnZb"><div class="h5"><br>
--<br>
Dan Staples<br>
<br>
Open Technology Institute<br>
<a href="https://commotionwireless.net" target="_blank">https://commotionwireless.net</a><br>
OpenPGP key: <a href="http://disman.tl/pgp.asc" target="_blank">http://disman.tl/pgp.asc</a><br>
Fingerprint: 2480 095D 4B16 436F 35AB 7305 F670 74ED BD86 43A9<br>
</div></div></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div>Ben West</div><div><a href="mailto:me@benwest.name" target="_blank">me@benwest.name</a></div>
</div>