Firefox 3.0.5 starts in offline mode, failing to detect that I am online (with a connection which Opera, ping and apt-get all know to use well).

The online connection that is not detected by firefox (nor network manager) is via UMTS, on an Asus EeePc 901GO, using wvdial and pppd. All these programs are part of an Ubuntu 8.04 Desktop wiith kernel 2.6.24-21-eeepc i686.

If all programs acted like firefox 3, I woud have had no chance to help myself, because I did not search nor find the "offline mode" in the "file" menu. I searched it in the network settings, (just a hint for  the usability "experts" out there).

This issue is not only technical but political. I think it is an important aspect and I will not search another hour for the correct place for publishing it, this place is good enough:

It is obvious and reported here that the crucial user experence with firefox is crushed in many cases by this bug. It is easy to understand that improving the detection of online states will always be inferiour to just try to connect, because the latter depends on less other programs. Those programs, like all software, will have bugs and missing features, which curretly is the case. Neither do I expect Network Manager or Firefox to understand  all features of wvdial or pppd nor should firefox rely on Network Manager or dbus. I think it is clear that correctly auto-enabling the offline mode is much less important than being able to use an online connection.

Despite all of this, the bug got closed, people are told that they don't write enough information, that the bug is a bug of another program, or that part of their reports have nothing to do with this bug. All of these counter-arguments do not lead to a solution but do defend the problem and the problematic decision to auto-enable offline mode due to messages from dbus, network-manager or whatever.

Changing the behaviour of Firefox (back to always start in online mode and just try to connect) isn't difficult in terms of problem-solving or programming. It was there in Firefox 2 I assume, so it is more a decision than a technical problem. Who decides? And who decides whether a technocrat, bureaucrat or service-oriented human is dealing with this problem? Do the ubuntu users have influence here? Or the firefox users? I had enough technocrats and bureaucrats giving answers in politician's style, instead of solving problems in Firefox, Openoffice etc.. So if I am part of the power deciding about Firefox and Ubuntu, just because I use it, spread the word about it and install it on dozens of machines, then I vote for starting firefox in online mode by default and for replacing the persons dealing with this bug. Wether they are paid or altruistic, they should not be able to continue to worsen this fine piece of software. It's like with the lights on my bicycIe: It should not turn off automatically, even if someone from the producers claims that the brightness sensor is the problem. Forget the sensor, just let the lights shine!

Installed packages:
Installed: firefox	3.0.5+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.8.04.1
Installed: firefox-3.0	3.0.5+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.8.04.1
Installed: firefox-3.0-gnome-support	3.0.5+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.8.04.1
Installed: firefox-gnome-support	3.0.5+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.8.04.1