NetworkManager should check for Internet connection

[Jonas G. Drange]

Reproduce:
Have SIM with bad data plan.*
Wi-FI OFF.
Cellular data ON (and ofono reports Attached = 1)
$ gdbus call -e -d com.ubuntu.connectivity1 -o /com/ubuntu/connectivity1/NetworkingStatus -m org.freedesktop.DBus.Properties.Get com.ubuntu.connectivity1.NetworkingStatus Status

What happens
(<uint32 70>,) (NM_STATE_CONNECTED_GLOBAL) [1]

What should happen:
(<uint32 20>,) (NM_STATE_DISCONNECTED) [1]

This assumes that NetworkManager's State property definition of “Connected” is equal to “Connected to the Internet”. If it's not, then this needs to be resolved elsewhere.

* Not sure what the exact definition of a bad data plan is, but assume “out of cash”, but ofono still attaches.

[1] https://developer.gnome.org/NetworkManager/0.9/spec.html#type-NM_STATE

[Tony Espy (awe)]

Unfortunately this is the way NetworkManager works. It's goal is to establish a network connection using the highest priority device and connection available. Success is defined as connection established and networking configuration successful ( ie. IP address assigned, routing table setup, ... ).

NetworkManager does support a feature called 'connectivity checking', see the following blog post ( look for the conf directive: "[connectivity]" ):

https://blogs.gnome.org/dcbw/2015/02/16/networkmanager-for-administrators-part-1/

That said, it's currently disabled as when first tested on Ubuntu, it didn't work that reliably, so it was never enabled by default. It's a bit too late to make this change in wily, so maybe this is something that should be explored for 16.04? That said, if you feel like this is important enough, please raise it with someone from the product team.

[Jonas G. Drange (jonas-drange)]

On 28 September 2015 at 20:03, Tony Espy <email address hidden> wrote:

> That said, it's currently disabled as when first tested on Ubuntu, it
> didn't work that reliably, so it was never enabled by default.

​Do you recall what did not work?​​