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CaptiveDetect Firefox (http://detectportal.firefox.com)

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JamieJones

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Feb 16, 2016, 3:52:28 PM2/16/16
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I noticed this when I was cleaning out all the URLs in Firefox
by putting them in my hosts file.

captivedetect.canonicalURL;http://detectportal.firefox.com/success.txt

I already put in my hosts file:
127.0.0.1 detectportal.firefox.com

So it can't cause me any problems.
But what is the purpose of this particular Firefox setting?

Philip Chee

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Feb 23, 2016, 11:49:22 PM2/23/16
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Captive portals are generally found at public wi-fi hot-sports,
Starbucks, Airports. Firefox uses this to detect if it's trapped in a
captive portal (success.txt not found) or can really access the internet
(success.txt found). In other words it's just Firefox checking for
Man-in-the-middle setups.

If you put that URL into your hosts file. Firefox may decide that you
are caught in a fake wi-fi hotspot.

Phil

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skate...@gmail.com

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Jun 13, 2016, 8:46:48 AM6/13/16
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Hi, i today also found this requests. I think there are still questions open:
1) What does it change if firefox think he is trapped ?
2) Is there an way to disable it ? i already send "success" but see that firefox really often fetch the url. (Each 3-4 seconds)

»Q«

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Jun 13, 2016, 1:21:19 PM6/13/16
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In
<news:mailman.524.1465822005...@lists.mozilla.org>,
skate...@gmail.com wrote:

> Hi, i today also found this requests. I think there are still
> questions open:

Replying to an old (or even a new) message without quoting any of it is
a good way to ensure that many people reading your message won't be able
to tell what you're talking about.

> 1) What does it change if firefox think he is trapped ?

I'm not certain, but I think
<https://github.com/vtsatskin/FX-Captive-Portals-Design/blob/master/design/spec.md>
describes what was implemented in Firefox.

> 2) Is there an way to disable it ? i already send "success"
> but see that firefox really often fetch the url. (Each 3-4 seconds)

I don't understand this. You mean you've changed the URL to point to a
local file which returns "success"?

Good Guy

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Jun 13, 2016, 1:26:17 PM6/13/16
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I don't even understand what you are talking about!  Can you explain what is this about?  FF doesn't trap anybody but for some reasons you are trapped.


mkiah...@gmail.com

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Mar 14, 2017, 7:29:43 PM3/14/17
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fireFox sends a request for http://detectportal.firefox.com/success.txt every 3-4 seconds.we want to stop it.

if u open this URL it's a plain text which says "Success".nothing more.

WaltS48

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Mar 14, 2017, 7:42:39 PM3/14/17
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On 3/14/17 7:23 PM, mkiah...@gmail.com wrote:
> fireFox sends a request for http://detectportal.firefox.com/success.txt every 3-4 seconds.we want to stop it.
>
> if u open this URL it's a plain text which says "Success".nothing more.
>
Stop it by using another browser.

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Andy Burns

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Mar 14, 2017, 7:51:13 PM3/14/17
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mkiah...@gmail.com wrote:

> fireFox sends a request for
> http://detectportal.firefox.com/success.txt every 3-4 seconds.we want
> to stop it.

In about:config set network.captive-portal-service.enabled to false


3m.tr...@gmail.com

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Mar 18, 2017, 1:59:44 PM3/18/17
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Thanks a lot for this info.
Although it's weird that there is no info at all about this setting on MDN it seems....
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