193857 - Disconnect option (for dial-up) after sending/receiving

Status: NEW

(SeaMonkey :: MailNews: Message Display, enhancement)

Description

[Joey Bowles]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.3b) Gecko/20030216
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.3b) Gecko/20030216

This is a feature request, not a true bug.

For those of us who use dial-up connections, it is very convenient to have an
option that disconnects the connection upon completion of send and receiving
email. This should simply be a checkbox on a send/recv dialog and not hidden in
a menu. Outlook Express has this simple feature and it makes my life easier for
downloading and sending large emails.


Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1.
2.
3.

Comment 1

[Joey Bowles]

Attachment: Screen shot of OUtlook Express example

Comment 2

[R.K.Aa.]

*** Bug 250554 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 3

[R.K.Aa.]

dup of bug 160484?

Comment 4

[Asa Dotzler [:asa]]

I don't think this is a dupe of offline. It's specifically requesting that
checkin for new messages be able to trigger a disconnect of MS DUN. 

Comment 5

[Mike Cowperthwaite]

*** Bug 268382 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 6

[John Rees]

For IE6 converts this is proving expensive for those of us limited to dial up
connections especially with cellphones.

Comment 7

[David Pottage]

I voted for this bug, I think it is important.

When I setup internet access on my sister in law's computer, I installed
Thunderbird. She is a grade school teacher, and not very computer savy.

She: Where is Outlook express?
Me:  I have installed a better email tool look [demonstrates thunderbird]
She: Looks good, How do I get it to check mail, then hang up?
Me:  Err, not sure. [Checks menus etc] You can't.
She: I need that, otherwise my internet bill will go sky high, Please re-install
Outlook express.

I know this reads like one of those bug that says the products sucks, and 'I
will not use it unless you fix this bug', but seriously, for occasional modem
users on a metered connection, this feature is important, and saves a great deal
of money.

I realise that Thunderbird does not know the details about what network
interface it is using, but neither does outlook. If you do 'Check mail, then
hangup' in  outlook, while on a LAN, it will go through the motions anyway.
Thunderbird should do likewise

While in-elegant, I think that a kludge solution now, that just tacks on a
hangup modem system command onto the end of the check mail code would better
than waiting six months for an elegant solution that check which interface is in
use etc.

Comment 8

[Martin F.]

Calling rasdial /disconnect should do the trick (on Windows). I can even do that in one line of PHP, so I assume it's not very difficult to add.

This is a serious issue for those who want to migrate from OE (and those who try to convince OE users), since it's one of the very few "bugs" that cause you to lose money.

Comment 9

[Martin F.]

Shouldn't the product changed to core? I couldn't find a corresponding Thunderbird bug.

Comment 10

[Marc TERRIER]

I completely agree with what David Pottage wrote on 2005-01-04, because I recently  experienced with my sister exactly the same scenario he did with his sister in law: while this is no actual *bug*, it's a feature that most - if not all - Outlook Express users on a metered connection expect in Mozilla's mail clients when shifting from OE to TB or Mozilla Suite. I voted for this "bug" (enhancement request), because I also do think it is important.

Comment 11

[Joerg Schwieder]

Seems to be a little bit silent on this one.
So let's add another aspect.
I do have the "relatives" issue as well (it's my mother in this case), however, I think the more important aspect is business use.
When I use Outlook or Notes I do my email (may be some megabytes of it), press "synchronize" or something and go out for dinner (or football, these days ;-).

Without this option, Tbird is not feasible as a professional business tool.
So, that's one vote from me.

Comment 12

[Richard]

Duplicate of bug 160484 and bug 106044 ????

What is the point of the "Offline" function in TB if it doesn't actually take
the user offline?

Comment 13

[Richard]

I suspect most devlopers anbd readers of this forum are on broadband.  Remember something like 70% of home internet users are on dial up - thats a lot of teh people who will soon give up on the TB when it happily connects but then fails to hang up.

Comment 14

[supporter]

Hi,

I implemented a hang-up internet connection windows executable (Win32 app). It uses the RAS Hangup API call and is able to hangup all internet connections or a specific one. I think in general it would be best to let thunderbird dial a user defined internet connection and afterwards only disconnect this one!

With Windows API calls this is absolutely no problem! You can use either the wininet.dll or rasapi32.dll to enumerate all windows dialup-connections. When Thunderbird is launched it is possible to show the well-known MS IE dialup-connection dialog with the selected dialup-connection as default-connection. Afterwards it is no problem to hangup all connections or only hangup your dialed connection. I implemented this in a executable file but would need help to integrate this into thunderbird so that every time thunderbird tries to connect to the internet and no connection is available or the user default connection is not available it shows the IE dialup dialog again!

But only dial the  connection is as easy as falling of a log!

Is there interest in such a Win32 exe file??