<div dir="ltr"><br><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Fri, Feb 19, 2016 at 12:07 PM, Patrick McManus <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:mcmanus@ducksong.com" target="_blank">mcmanus@ducksong.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr"><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div>Firefox still has a feature to automatically dial your modem under some circumstances: <a href="https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Autodial_for_Windows_NT" target="_blank">https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Autodial_for_Windows_NT</a> ..<br><br></div>I'd like to remove it because<br><br></div>1] it has code in some core places that do undergo changes, and regression testing is near impossible.<br><br></div>2] it has some crashes associated with the remote access service dll<br><br></div><div>3] it has some bugs associated with it that won't realistically get fixed (it can involve a blocking OS level dialog that can block shutdown, it can dial at incorrect times (probably an OS bug not getting fixed), etc..)<br></div><div><br></div>4] this is 'helper' functionality. Dialup is still possible, firefox just wont trigger it anymore.<br><br></div><div>5] Applications other than IE don't do this.<br></div><div><br></div>Telemetry has been on beta 45 to see how many sessions initialize the autodialer. The number is about 1 in 6500.<br></div></div></div></div></blockquote><div><br></div><div>we we have any more details around what conditions are present when the auto-dialer gets initialized? A couple of other things that might help the understanding is<br><br></div><div>OS and version info (isolated to a small set or broad based?)<br></div><div><br></div><div>Can we determine where the systems that are using this feature are, or what locales might be primary affected? e.g. Does it appear that the feature gets broad based use around the world, or is mostly something that gets targeted use in places like India, or New York and London Financial districts?<br><br></div><div>On systems where the auto-dialer gets used is a network card also used/available, or does it look like the system uses the modem exclusively? <br><br></div><div>Any indication on the type of sites that are being contacted when the network access via modem kicks in? e.g. does it look look random browsing, or specific targeted sites with possible mission critical uses like financial transactions, etc?<br><br></div><div>A couple of quick google searches shows that most uses of modems these days is related to point of sales systems and data transfers. "Firefox Point of Sale Systems" turns up some interesting results that show people possibly building web apps that might also call out to things like terminals for credit card authorization.<br></div><div><br></div><div>This feature is definitely legacy use and one ripe for removal. I think the key thing is to try and determine how "mission critical" and targeted that use actually appears to be, and if there is reasonable fail over to a network card. <br><br> I'm actually surprised 1 in 6500 beta sessions use the auto-dialer. Is that about 300 beta users a day? Does usage go higher on the release channel or could we expect that?<br></div><div><br></div><div>-chofmann<br></div><div> <br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr"><div><div><div><br></div>Now I'm sure some of those sessions don't want the autodialer popping up. I don't know how to figure out that fraction - my intuition says it is many of them. Its also possible that the release population will see a different fraction because dialup users wouldn't be spending bandwidth on pre-release channels.. we can track that as the removal rides the train.<br><br></div>I think much like the cookie "ask me everytime" feature, this just can't be a great part of firefox at this time and we ought to jettison it.<br><br></div>Objections?<br><br><br><div><div><br><br><br><br></div></div></div>
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