Online Status Design

[Martin Owens <doctormo gmail com>]

Hello NetworkManager List,

At the Ubuntu Developers Summit in Texas, we had a sit down and talk
about the design and presentation of a status that would indicate to the
user if they are actually online (rather than simply connected to a
network)

You can read more on the blueprint here, with wiki page linked from
there:

https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/lucid-online-status

The sessions turned out to be very design driven, with no technical
representation, no nm programmers. Which was a shame.

As a result I've been charged with scoping out the technical feasibility
in NetworkManager of the first set of objectives to basically do simple
http requests and provide a set of variables via dbus indicating the
result from this kind of test.

If we can not get more support from the people programming
NetworkManager, then the feature may not be possible to build. Even if
it was proven that it would help the relevancy of the network status
given to the user.

Let me know your thoughts, especially if you think the features
discussed are not technically possible.

Thanks.

Best Regards, Martin Owens