F12: NetworkManager-Firefox: Firefox is currently in offline mode and can't browse the Web

[Terry Barnaby]

On 11/29/2009 11:30 PM, Dan Williams wrote:
> On Sat, 2009-11-28 at 09:10 +0000, Terry Barnaby wrote:
>> On 11/28/2009 08:35 AM, Rakesh Pandit wrote:
>>> 2009/11/28 Terry Barnaby wrote:
>>>> If the NetworkManager service is running, but not managing the current
>>>> network connection, then Firefox starts up in offline mode.
>>>>
>>>> Is this a bug in NetworkManager or Firefox ?
>>>>
>>>
>>> This is odd behaviour and needs to be fixed. I would suggest open up a
>>> bug against firefox. I know one can change
>>> toolkit.networkmanager.disable preference, but it is a PITA for our
>>> users. One of use cases is: Sometime network manager does not connect
>>> me via my CDMA usb modem (in case signal is weak), but wvdial does and
>>> once I switch from NM to wvdial, my firefox gets to offline mode,
>>> which I don't expect it to as I am connected.
>>>
>> Ok, filed as: 542078
>
> NetworkManager is intended to control the default internet connection.
> If NetworkManager cannot control the default internet connection, then
> you may not want to use NetworkManager.
>
> In your case, you're using a mobile broadband device.  The real bug here
> is that for whatever reason, NM/MM aren't connecting your modem, and we
> should follow up on that bug instead.
>
> Dan
>
I am not using a mobile broadband device. The network connection my systems
use is not just the Internet it is a local network LAN connection that also
serves the internet. Most of my systems use a local network server which 
provides NIS, /home and /data using NFS and VPN etc. I normally use the
service "network" to bring up wired or wireless networking for this. Fedora,
by default, uses NetworkManager to manage all network devices though. I use
the service "network" as, for some reason, the NetworkManager service is
started after the netfs and other services are started. Is there a reason
for this ??

I can obviously turn of the NetworkManager service, which I have done on the
desktop systems. However, I also have a few Laptops that can roam. In F11 and
before I have used the network and NetworkManager services. When the laptop
boots away from home, the "network" service fails and I can then use the
NetworkManager service to connect to whatever wireless network or G3 network is
available.

It does seem sensible to me that the "system" provides applications with info
on if the network is up (not just the Internet). The NetworkManager service
seems the place to do this and it looks like the applications are starting
to use it for this purpose.
So maybe a generic NM "isNetworkUp()" API call is called for ?