Raymond! StuffIt! is still amazing code and a huge part of my early computer use.
How does Windows decide whether your computer has full Internet access?
41–50 of 305 posts
Re: How does Windows decide whether your computer has full Internet access?
#42This really gets on my nerves! Some twit of a programmer (probably via a committee) "knows" whether a system has connectivity. For some people Facebook is the internet and for others it is Outlook. Somehow a twiddler at MS has decided that a file on a web server at some wanky location is the internet and that's the final answer. "I cn haz a file" is fine lovely internets! No it bloody well isn't. You should be constr…
But it works 99.999% of use-cases as a business decision, what do you suggest windows should do to make it a better user experience for their customers?
> You should be constructing a response to a challenge from the other end, not a response to a simple GET like it's 1999.
Really? Isn't simple better here, why are you making this sound so crazy? Also you can turn it off.
The author also had a good response for spoofing question imo: "So what if somebody spoofs it? Congratulations, you tricked Windows into showing a “full internet access” icon, and then when the user tries to go to a web site, they get an error."
You sound like a typical engineer who cannot see the bigger picture of business decisions.
Re: How does Windows decide whether your computer has full Internet access?
#43Two things I’ve always wanted to do is figure out how to cache windows updates on my local network without an enterprise windows install, and how to block windows updates by sinkholing domains and/or ip addresses (I work in IT security). Can anyone give any tips on either of these?
Why do you want to block windows updates?
Re: How does Windows decide whether your computer has full Internet access?
#44I'm not sure if it's still in use but iPhones used to hit http://www.apple.com/library/test/success.html to test connectivity. I used to use it to test connectivity on my own apps because Apple is probably better at making sure a url reachable than I am.
I believe they hit http://captive.apple.com now (and that's what I use).
Re: How does Windows decide whether your computer has full Internet access?
#45it's interesting, when I open http://www.msftncsi.com/ncsi.txt directly in Chrome it triggers a Translate this Page url bar icon and it prompts to translate between Hungarian and English. All that's in the content of the page is `Microsoft NCSI`
Re: How does Windows decide whether your computer has full Internet access?
#46Raymond! StuffIt! is still amazing code and a huge part of my early computer use.
But StuffIt was by Raymond Lau?
Re: How does Windows decide whether your computer has full Internet access?
#47This really gets on my nerves! Some twit of a programmer (probably via a committee) "knows" whether a system has connectivity. For some people Facebook is the internet and for others it is Outlook. Somehow a twiddler at MS has decided that a file on a web server at some wanky location is the internet and that's the final answer. "I cn haz a file" is fine lovely internets! No it bloody well isn't. You should be constr…
But it works 99.999% of use-cases as a business decision, what do you suggest windows should do to make it a better user experience for their customers? > You should be constructing a response to a challenge from the other end, not a response to a simple GET like it's 1999. Really? Isn't simple better here, why are you making this sound so crazy? Also you can turn it off. The author also had a good response for spoof…
"You sound like a typical engineer"
I've been a Managing Director for 22 years. Make of that what you will, me old fruit.
Re: How does Windows decide whether your computer has full Internet access?
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
But it works 99.999% of use-cases as a business decision, what do you suggest windows should do to make it a better user experience for their customers? > You should be constructing a response to a challenge from the other end, not a response to a simple GET like it's 1999. Really? Isn't simple better here, why are you making this sound so crazy? Also you can turn it off. The author also had a good response for spoof…
"You sound like a typical engineer" I've been a Managing Director for 22 years. Make of that what you will, me old fruit.
Oh and what do you have against engineers? (typical or otherwise)
I used to be Chartered (Stick n Bricks n that) ...
Re: How does Windows decide whether your computer has full Internet access?
#49Earlier quoted context omitted.
even with the cable unplugged and no wifi module?
Yes, can confirm I was installing Win11 on my brother-in-law's new PC that I built last week and there were no default drivers for the USB wifi adapter I had attempted to reuse from his old machine. The entire process was roadblocked wanting me to plug into Ethernet until I researched the secret keyboard combination that allows you to shell out and then restart with the ability to do a network-free install.
I was using a Win 11 Pro installer stick on a Surface 4 the other day paired with a USB Ethernet interface. Aside from the fact that keyboard and mouse don’t work, because Windows doesn’t have drivers for a Microsoft Surface during install, I was able to convince Microsoft that I have no connection by unplugging the Ethernet cable right before the Microsoft account login prompt. Maybe I was lucky? Or really old installer? (Got it from Amazon Japan)
It’s definitely not an OS I would like to make my daily driver. I just hope Apple won’t go down that road with macOS.
Re: How does Windows decide whether your computer has full Internet access?
#50Two things I’ve always wanted to do is figure out how to cache windows updates on my local network without an enterprise windows install, and how to block windows updates by sinkholing domains and/or ip addresses (I work in IT security). Can anyone give any tips on either of these?
Why do you want to block windows updates?
Because working in security sometimes I want to test malware on outdated AV, blocking full internet causes command and control failures, creating a weird spot to analyse traffic. Disabling Defender is not persistent (it seems to switch itself on, etc).