Re: Low-Cost Tablet PC suitable for Debian

[Celejar <celejar@gmail.com>]

On Wed, 12 Dec 2018 11:21:21 -0500
Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca> wrote:

> > it's android without the "I'd like to call home' parts, if you choose the
> > bare install.
> 
> AFAIK the bare install will still call home: every time you connect to
> a wifi network it performs an HTTP request to a Google server in order to
> detect whether the local connection gives you access to the internet or
> not (and if not, it presumes it's a captive portal and offers you to
> launch a browser to sign in).

I've always wondered how Android (and Windows) "know" whether you're
connected to the internet or not. I guess what you say make sense. Is
this documented somewhere? Is there a way to change the HTTP request to
some other host of your choosing?

For Windows (Vista), we find some documentation here:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/windows/it-pro/windows-vista/cc766017(v=ws.
10)

https://superuser.com/questions/277923/how-does-windows-know-whether-it-has-internet-access-or-if-a-wi-fi-connection-re

Is there anything like this pre-made for Debian? I suppose it would be
easy enough to script.

Celejar