Browser Blank

"Paul in Houston TX" wrote

| Interesting how different people interpret things differently.
| I took the op's post to mean not blank.
| "anything but a benign web page or just blank."
|

I'm guessing the OP doesn't understand how it works.
They're asking for a page online that's "benign or blank".
It may be that they think an online homepage is necessary
for the browser to work.

J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:
In message , VanguardLH
writes:
FreeMan wrote:

What is the best URL to use when opening a browser.
Something that will try to get to the internet but will not be
***^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^* **

political, sales or anything but a benign web page or just blank.

For a quick load of a web browser that doesn't have it waste time
rendering a home page that you may not intend to visit in a particular
web session, use about:blank. You can specify it as the URL in a

That doesn't "try to get to the internet". (I presume FreeMan wanted to
use it as a quick check that he has connectivity.)

FWIW, I just use https://www.google.co.uk/advanced_search?hl=en ; it's a
relatively simple page, no big graphic. Amend for your local Google. For
those who are allergic to Google, some other search engine such as
DuckDuckGo maybe.
[]

Same here! Good minds think alike. :-) Except my version is:
https://www.google.com/advanced_search?hl=en

It works well because it's a simple plain web page, and often I want to look
something up, anyways, and the exact phrase search entry box there is also
appreciated.

In message , Char Jackson
writes:
On Sun, 26 May 2019 11:26:21 -0500, Paul in Houston TX
wrote:

Interesting how different people interpret things differently.
I took the op's post to mean not blank.
"anything but a benign web page or just blank."

This page is pretty simple, responds very quickly, and serves to verify
Internet connectivity:

http://www.isitthef5.com/


I was going to say "I like it! (Though am wondering what 'the F5' is.)";
it certainly does respond quickly. Then my curiosity got the better of
me and I did a "view source". Really? All that just to display that? (I
strongly suspect some auto-HTML generator was used. If not, the author's
just having a laugh - and is a bit of a masochist.)
[]
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

I hope you dream a pig.

On Mon, 27 May 2019 02:35:26 +0100, "J. P. Gilliver (John)"
wrote:

In message , Char Jackson
writes:
On Sun, 26 May 2019 11:26:21 -0500, Paul in Houston TX
wrote:

Interesting how different people interpret things differently.
I took the op's post to mean not blank.
"anything but a benign web page or just blank."

This page is pretty simple, responds very quickly, and serves to verify
Internet connectivity:

http://www.isitthef5.com/


I was going to say "I like it! (Though am wondering what 'the F5' is.)";

F5 Networks (https://www.f5.com) provides networking gear to the
enterprise space and because of where the gear is typically placed in
the network and how complex it is to configure and admin, it frequently
gets blamed for any network issues. As a result, the F5 admin's primary
job seems to consist of two parts: 1) prove that his equipment is not at
fault, and 2) find the actual root cause and engage the admins for that
equipment. The website was put up as a joke many years ago, (15-20
years?), and surprisingly it's still there.

it certainly does respond quickly. Then my curiosity got the better of
me and I did a "view source". Really? All that just to display that? (I
strongly suspect some auto-HTML generator was used. If not, the author's
just having a laugh - and is a bit of a masochist.)
[]

I think you're on the right track. Still, even with all of that code,
it responds quickly.


--

Char Jackson

Paul in Houston TX wrote:

Interesting how different people interpret things differently.
I took the op's post to mean not blank.
"anything but a benign web page or just blank."

We'll have to wait to see if the OP returns to clarify if he really
requires a network connection tested by his web browser (rather than use
something simpler and smaller - or even just a local HTTP connection,
like to the internal web server in his router/cable modem) or he really
just wanted to load the web browser with a blank/benign web page.

VanguardLH wrote:

Paul in Houston TX wrote:

Interesting how different people interpret things differently.
I took the op's post to mean not blank.
"anything but a benign web page or just blank."

We'll have to wait to see if the OP returns to clarify if he really
requires a network connection tested by his web browser (rather than use
something simpler and smaller - or even just a local HTTP connection,
like to the internal web server in his router/cable modem) or he really
just wanted to load the web browser with a blank/benign web page.

Also, even when configuring the web browser to load about:blank for a
blank page (which is an internal resource to the web browser), the web
browser will still make outbound connections. Use SysInternals' TCPView
or any other network monitor, load your web browser, and notice it will
[attempt to] make outbound connections. So, even when loading no
document, the web browser still has tentacles into the Internet.

"VanguardLH" wrote

| Also, even when configuring the web browser to load about:blank for a
| blank page (which is an internal resource to the web browser), the web
| browser will still make outbound connections.

Speak for yourself there, spyware lover.
I just fired up FF and New Moon. They both
show 2 local connections. My firewall shows
no blocked attempts.

On 5/26/19 8:35 PM, J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:

[snip]

I was going to say "I like it! (Though am wondering what 'the F5' is.)";
it certainly does respond quickly. Then my curiosity got the better of
me and I did a "view source". Really? All that just to display that?

Including a table for one item, and unneeded CSS.

(I
strongly suspect some auto-HTML generator was used. If not, the author's
just having a laugh - and is a bit of a masochist.)
[]


--
Mark Lloyd
http://notstupid.us/

"I put out these milk and cookies as a sacrifice. If Thou wishest me to
eat them, please give me a sign by doing absolutely nothing.
MMMMmmmm..." [Homer Simpson]

On 5/27/19 10:47 AM, VanguardLH wrote:
Paul in Houston TX wrote:

Interesting how different people interpret things differently.
I took the op's post to mean not blank.
"anything but a benign web page or just blank."

We'll have to wait to see if the OP returns to clarify if he really
requires a network connection tested by his web browser (rather than use
something simpler and smaller - or even just a local HTTP connection,
like to the internal web server in his router/cable modem) or he really
just wanted to load the web browser with a blank/benign web page.

I use my website (LAN not internet) for a homepage. The actual URL being
"http://gary.lan" (which won't do you any good). Anyway, it's normally
identical to the one in my sig.

--
Mark Lloyd
http://notstupid.us/

"I put out these milk and cookies as a sacrifice. If Thou wishest me to
eat them, please give me a sign by doing absolutely nothing.
MMMMmmmm..." [Homer Simpson]

Mayayana wrote:

"VanguardLH" wrote

| Also, even when configuring the web browser to load about:blank for a
| blank page (which is an internal resource to the web browser), the web
| browser will still make outbound connections.

Speak for yourself there, spyware lover.
I just fired up FF and New Moon. They both
show 2 local connections. My firewall shows
no blocked attempts.

Speak for yourself there, liar (tit for tat).

I fired up FF and, yep, it made several (8 of them, not just two)
localhost connections but it also made outbound connections to
amazonnews.com, cloudfront.net, and googleusercontent.com. Some might
due to extensions. The last one is probably due to SafeBrowsing that
Firefox uses from Google since obviously about:blank is an internal
resource and has no images. I've seen Firefox connect to 1e100.net
(googleusercontent, which is normally for images but I'm loading the
about:blank internal page) which is also used by Google's SafeBrowsing
service (that Mozilla uses) to check on what might be "bad" sites. Yep,
you can disable SafeBrowsing (Privacy & Security - Security section),
but then I made a general statement, not one that covered every
conceivable tweaking of Firefox. By default, Safebrowsing is enabled.
If you are a privacy paranoid, which seems plausible by your attempted
humorified insult, then you should disable SafeBrowsing because
obviously Google is tracking your web surfing, even in Firefox.

While I am using about:blank for both the home page and new tabs, how do
YOU know that Firefox isn't still making connections for that stupid top
sites feature.

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/new...-to-top-sites/

Also, I use Firefox as my secondary or backup web browser, so I haven't
bothered to go into the user config dialog or into about:config to
disable every spyware feature of Firefox, like search suggestions.
Since Firefox gets used rarely by me, the only extensions that I've
installed into it are uBlock Origin and Mute Sites By Default. I know
uBO phones out to get its blacklists updated. So does Firefox if you
use its own Disconnect.Me blacklist for its content blocking, and now
Mozilla has added blocking for cryptominers and fingerprinters (disabled
by default, but I enabled those) besides just trackers and cookies.

In Firefox, go to about:config. Sort the list by Status. Of those with
status = Modified, how many were changed by you?

Sorry, my assumption was the reader would be using the latest version of
Firefox that is not available, not the latest available back on Windows
XP nor the user choosing to remain on some old version of Firefox, like
prior to version 57 (Quantum) that killed off legacy extensions. I also
assumed you left the multi-process option (General - Performance -
Content process limit) to let Firefox decide the value, not that you set
it down to 1. I did configure Firefox to NOT send crash data or
telemetry data, but then that is not the *default* config.

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb...ic-connections

Doesn't Firefox still have its Live Bookmarks feature? If so:

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/live-bookmarks

I don't use it, but some users might.

Mark Lloyd wrote:

On 5/27/19 10:47 AM, VanguardLH wrote:
Paul in Houston TX wrote:

Interesting how different people interpret things differently.
I took the op's post to mean not blank.
"anything but a benign web page or just blank."

We'll have to wait to see if the OP returns to clarify if he really
requires a network connection tested by his web browser (rather than use
something simpler and smaller - or even just a local HTTP connection,
like to the internal web server in his router/cable modem) or he really
just wanted to load the web browser with a blank/benign web page.

I use my website (LAN not internet) for a homepage. The actual URL being
"http://gary.lan" (which won't do you any good). Anyway, it's normally
identical to the one in my sig.

The OP already has an intranet web site: the one built into his router
or cable modem (to allow the user to configure it). However, there is
some debate if the OP wants to check if he can obtain an Internet
connection which neither about:blank (my suggestion) or a local web
server will verify.

Need to wait until the OP returns to this discussion to see what was his
actual intentions.

Wow what a thread.

I want no bias on the web page that the user will open with his/her
default browser, whatever it is.

i.e. no search engine page. hopefully just their default browser page
opening.

Is there something like about:blank that will open the default page ?


FreeMan wrote:
What is the best URL to use when opening a browser.
Something that will try to get to the internet but will not be
political, sales or anything but a benign web page or just blank.

"FreeMan" wrote

| i.e. no search engine page. hopefully just their default browser page
| opening.
|
| Is there something like about:blank that will open the default page ?
|

What's their default page? You can set any local or remote
page to load. Their default page would be the page they have
set to load, no? There seems to be a mixup in the terminology
you're using.

On 5/28/2019 5:14 PM, FreeMan wrote:
Wow what a thread.

I want no bias on the web page that the user will open with his/her
default browser, whatever it is.

i.e. no search engine page. hopefully just their default browser page
opening.

Is there something like about:blank that will open the default page ?


The default page is whatever the user has chosen.

With SeaMonkey, it can be a Web page via the Internet, a local file on
the user's computer, a blank screen, the last page the user visited, or
the complete prior session (including multiple tabs if that was the
browser's state when it was most recently terminated). Furthermore,
different default pages can be specified for launching the browser, for
opening a new window for an existing browser session, and for creating a
new tab in the current browser window.

As I indicated before in this thread, my chosen default page (which
requires no Internet connection) is an HTML-formatted export of my
bookmarks, generated when I last terminated my browser. This is my
default for a new launch, a new window, and a new tab.

--
David E. Ross
http://www.rossde.com/

Donald Trump lied his way onto the Forbes 400 richest people list.
https://tinyurl.com/yx9ebrqz

FreeMan wrote:
Wow what a thread.

I want no bias on the web page that the user will open with his/her
default browser, whatever it is.

i.e. no search engine page. hopefully just their default browser page
opening.

Is there something like about:blank that will open the default page ?


FreeMan wrote:
What is the best URL to use when opening a browser.
Something that will try to get to the internet but will not be
political, sales or anything but a benign web page or just blank.

See Char Jackson's reply on May 26:
"This page is pretty simple, responds very quickly, and serves to verify
Internet connectivity:
http://www.isitthef5.com/
"