<div dir="ltr">Thanks Josh and Ryan -- those were my thoughts too. If we are talking about Commotion's use-case as an intra-net without dependency on global Internet access, then not having the splash page appear unless there is connectivity seems like a problem -- but hopefully a problem with an easy solution? <div>
<br></div><div>If I am building a network with Commotion on which Internet is an occasional added bonus, how do people access the network/the local apps without going to the splashpage? </div></div><div class="gmail_extra">
<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Sep 12, 2013 at 10:38 AM, Joshua Breitbart <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:breitbart@opentechinstitute.org" target="_blank">breitbart@opentechinstitute.org</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><br>
<br>
On 9/12/13 10:11 AM, Ryan Gerety wrote:<br>
> For now, we just need a way to let people know there is a<br>
> splash/community/apps page right?<br>
><br>
> Perhaps access points should be named "go to x" so that people would<br>
> have some idea of where to go?<br>
<br>
But that instruction would only make sense if the Internet was down and<br>
the splash page wasn't working, right? So it's another node-by-node<br>
adjustment you would have to make after an outage.<br>
<br>
If I understand it correctly, you would still be able to get to a<br>
locally-hosted page or service by entering in the IP address, so we'd<br>
have to socialize an emergency IP address for people to enter in advance<br>
of an Internet outage, the way people in the US know to dial 911 in case<br>
of emergency. Or is that not how it would work?<br>
<br>
<br>
><br>
><br>
><br>
> On 9/12/2013 8:24 AM, Dan Staples wrote:<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 computer lab<br>
>>> set to <a href="http://google.com" target="_blank">google.com</a> but since we are on an open 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 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. I was<br>
>>> wondering if anyone knew a way to set the splash screen so it will 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 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 browsers<br>
>>> we seemed to get to the splash screen fine to allow internet access. Not<br>
>>> sure if this has been a problem in the past or of I'm missing 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>
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>>> <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>
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</blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><div><br></div>-- <br><div dir="ltr">Darby Hickey<br>Program Associate, Open Technology Institute<br>New America Foundation<br>202-596-3415<br><a href="http://oti.newamerica.net" target="_blank">oti.newamerica.net</a></div>
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