Hack 26. Dial Up Automatically on Startup 
Save yourself from having to hand-connect to
the Internet before surfing with Firefox.
This hack explains how to automatically dial up your ISP when Firefox
starts. Disconnecting is more problematic. Attack that using timeout
configuration items provided by the operating system. If you want
Firefox to auto-dial for you, this preference must be left on:
network.autodial-helper.enabled /* default = true */
3.6.1. Windows 95/98/98SE/ME
Dial-up technology under these Windows versions has a top layer called
Dial Up Networking (DUN). To get this working
without fail, make a copy of a Firefox desktop shortcut and change
the copy. Change the specified firefox.exe
program to run firefox.bat instead. Create that
.bat file with these contents:
@echo off
start /B /MIN /W rundll32.exe rnaui.dll,RnaDial "connectoid"
firefox.exe
The string connectoid is the name of the
connection icon in the Dial-Up Networking
folder. It is case-sensitive. Do not use the name of a desktop
shortcut that points to the connection icon. Change the name
displayed on the new desktop icon to Firefox
Internet or similar.
This fix always works, but there is an alternate way. Firefox has a
File Work Offline menu option. If Firefox is started in
Offline mode, changing it to Online mode will instruct Firefox to
always dial the ISP for you.
It is also possible to make Firefox dial the ISP if the first web
page request (such as the home page) fails. In order for this to
happen, extra Windows setup is required. In the Internet Options
Control Panel item, in the Connections tab, choose any radio button
other than the one labeled "Never dial a
connection."
3.6.2. Windows NT/2000/XP
Top-level dial-up technology under these Windows versions is
called Remote Access
Services (RAS). It should be started automatically
when any program, including Firefox, attempts to access the Internet.
If that's not working for you, check that the RAS
Connection Manager and RAS Auto Connection Manager services are
enabled using the Services icon in the Control Panel. The rules are
otherwise the same as under 95/98/98SE/Me.
If it still isn't working, make a copy of a Firefox
desktop shortcut and change the copy. Change the specified
firefox.exe program to
firefox.bat. Create that
.bat file with these contents:
@echo off
start /B /MIN /W rasdial.exe "connectoid"
firefox.exe
The string connectoid is the name of the
connection icon, as described in the previous section. It is
case-sensitive. Do not use the name of a desktop shortcut that points
to the connection icon. To suppress the dialog that prompts for your
ISP login details, try this instead:
@echo off
start /B /MIN /W rasdial.exe "connectoid" "username" "password"
firefox.exe
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Beware: this saves your password as cleartext.
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3.6.3. Mac OS X
Automatic PPP dial-up under OS X
is handled through System Preferencesthe same as automatic
Internet connection of all types. To set it up, choose System
Preferences under the Apple menu and follow these steps:
Click on the Network icon, in the Internet & Network group. From the Show pop-up menu near the top of the window, select your
modem. Make sure the PPP tab is selected and click on the PPP Options...
button near the bottom of the panel. Tick the first checkbox labeled "Connect
automatically when needed." Click OK, and you're all set up.
3.6.4. Linux/Unix
To dial up before Firefox starts, just wrap the command-line call to
Firefox in a shell script. Before you're ready to
go, you must have the following things in
place:
Modem hardware that's known (usually present; test
with kudzu --probe) Serial and PPP drivers in the kernel (usually present; test with
modprobe -l) Correct serial devices in /dev (usually present) Software for PPP, such as pppd (usually present) Software for DHCP, such as dhcpd (usually present)
For example, under Red Hat Fedora Core, much of the work is automated
for you. Run this GUI tool and review the information in its help
system:
/usr/bin/system-config-network
If no profile is defined for the modem, use the GUI to create one. In
the DNS tab, clear all the DNS entries except for DNS Search
Path. Enter the ISP's domain name here,
making sure the IP address is also recorded, either in the
/etc/hosts file or using the tool:
/usr/bin/system-config-bind
If dial-up access via DHCP has been started, Linux DHCP will usually
overwrite the /etc/resolv.conf file, which can
affect or ruin any existing DNS arrangements that you might have in
place.
To configure and run dial-up by hand, configure
dhcpd.conf to contain the ISP's
DNS and IP Address information. Identify the tty in
/dev that matches the modem, and simply run:
pppd /dev/modemtty
dhcpd
Those commands can go in the wrapper script that starts Firefox.
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