[Curiosity]

I was looking for a config setting, and discovered that Mac Firefox lacks the setting "network.autodial-helper.enabled". Does this possibility exist only if an acoustic modem is detected or does it mean that Macs cannot dial?

[analogika]

Whether or not a Mac will connect to the internet automatically if a program requests the connection is set where it should be - in the system preferences' network pane.

If that's what you're asking.

[Curiosity]

I realize that the Mac will not dial if that kind of modem is not present, but how does Firefox know that? Do any newer Macs support dial-up at all, if there is a dialup modem available?

[TETENAL]

Yes, newer Macs support dialup if you get the extra modem.

Firefox doesn't know about it. Neither does it care.

[wataru]

In other words, applications on OS X don't know anything about internet connections. They try to send and receive data, and the OS takes care of the rest. If that means dialing up a modem, then that's what the OS does. All related settings are found in System Preferences (or perhaps the Internet Connect app; I forget, since it's been a long time since I used dialup).

The only network-related setting you can change in Firefox is the proxy settings. And that's an exception to the rule, as most apps get their proxy info from System Preferences.

[Curiosity]

Thanks. So the setting is not there because there is no need for it. Windows is less capable, so it needs something extra.