I've seen an explanation for this somewhere - if someone can jog my memory ...
A while ago I was trying out various portable versions of Gecko based browsers (Mozilla, K-M etc) as well as Opera in the hope I could use these as fully offline web page browsers.
After trying various tweaks I couldn't stop any of these browsers initiating a connection to the internet at start up. (The same applies to the numerous Launchers I've tested and editors like NVU all of which will force a connection).
The only solution was using an editor like Blumentals WebBuilder (highly recommended, btw) to quickly view html pages such as Help and Read Me files.
Does this have something to do with the way browsers lock in with internet services in Windows?
Can someone explain why this happens?
Portable Browers: Fully Offline Mode Possible?
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Andrew Lee
- Posts: 3063
- Joined: Sat Feb 04, 2006 9:19 am
- Contact:
Andrew - that's the interesting thing. This (and other about:config tweaks in FF) will work the first couple of times.
But after that FF, Opera ... anything ... they all want to connect to the internet again! In my testing so far, Offline mode just can't seem to be fully locked down.
I've tested this on three desktops and two laptops - all with XP SP2. Same result. Windows must pick up something via one of the services.
It would be great if a few other people reported on this. A firewall that has application filtering will help (most good ones do). Repeat the test a few times. I'm hoping it's something simple!
Anyway I'm going to ask Blumentals if he's up to ripping out the preview window from his HtmlPad and turn it into a light weight stand alone offline web page previewer. That would be so nice. I'm using WeBuilder to view html Help files now - it's so fast - just drag and drop - but of course you have the entire editing console as well.
More info here:
http://www.blumentals.net/
(btw, his stuff is just one or two steps away from being fully portable)
But after that FF, Opera ... anything ... they all want to connect to the internet again! In my testing so far, Offline mode just can't seem to be fully locked down.
I've tested this on three desktops and two laptops - all with XP SP2. Same result. Windows must pick up something via one of the services.
It would be great if a few other people reported on this. A firewall that has application filtering will help (most good ones do). Repeat the test a few times. I'm hoping it's something simple!
Anyway I'm going to ask Blumentals if he's up to ripping out the preview window from his HtmlPad and turn it into a light weight stand alone offline web page previewer. That would be so nice. I'm using WeBuilder to view html Help files now - it's so fast - just drag and drop - but of course you have the entire editing console as well.
More info here:
http://www.blumentals.net/
(btw, his stuff is just one or two steps away from being fully portable)
You might want to try The OffByOne Browser that is in the database.
It doesn't seem to want an Internet connection as long as you don't configure it to look to the internet for a Start Page. (See Options -> Start & Home Page...) I tested this by configuring OB1 with no Start Page and no Home Page, and by removing OB1 from my Zone Alarm Program Control screen. I restarted OB1 and Zone Alarm didn't ask for any input until I tried to go to an external site.
OB1 may or may not render your HTML file exactly like IE or Firefox. But, it might be what you are looking for.
Regards,
Dan
It doesn't seem to want an Internet connection as long as you don't configure it to look to the internet for a Start Page. (See Options -> Start & Home Page...) I tested this by configuring OB1 with no Start Page and no Home Page, and by removing OB1 from my Zone Alarm Program Control screen. I restarted OB1 and Zone Alarm didn't ask for any input until I tried to go to an external site.
OB1 may or may not render your HTML file exactly like IE or Firefox. But, it might be what you are looking for.
Regards,
Dan
Dan - thanks for that. I remembered OffByOne from a couple years ago when I went in quest for the ultimate light weight browser. The limitations of page rendering is a problem, though.
I did find something - Amaya:
http://www.w3.org/Amaya/Amaya.html
There is a Thinstall version (i.e. fully portable) available for free here:
http://www.thindownload.com/app-download/25/Amaya
Create a folder called "Thinstall" in the same directory. The virtual reg entires as well as your preferences will be written there.
Of course, being a browser / authoring tool it relies on JAVA etc to run so I'm not sure if this qualifies for the PFC list.
The good news is that it does not initiate a connection to the internet and features anti-aliased text.
The bad news is that it is constantly monitoring pages for W3C compliance - so error boxes a likely to pop up while browsing pages offline. (there doesn't seem to be a way of switching this off).
Anyway it's not too far off what I'm after. But finding a way to make the portable version of FF work fully offline would be ideal.
I did find something - Amaya:
http://www.w3.org/Amaya/Amaya.html
There is a Thinstall version (i.e. fully portable) available for free here:
http://www.thindownload.com/app-download/25/Amaya
Create a folder called "Thinstall" in the same directory. The virtual reg entires as well as your preferences will be written there.
Of course, being a browser / authoring tool it relies on JAVA etc to run so I'm not sure if this qualifies for the PFC list.
The good news is that it does not initiate a connection to the internet and features anti-aliased text.
The bad news is that it is constantly monitoring pages for W3C compliance - so error boxes a likely to pop up while browsing pages offline. (there doesn't seem to be a way of switching this off).
Anyway it's not too far off what I'm after. But finding a way to make the portable version of FF work fully offline would be ideal.
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johngoodin
- Posts: 1
- Joined: Wed Aug 26, 2009 10:36 am
Re:
The Thinstall version no longer works - Something about a license key having had expired.
Try:
Portable Amaya 10.1 Size: 9.4 MB
http://rapidshare.com/files/136084984/Amaya_10.1.rar
It's far better than "Komposer" in the long run however the learning curve is rather steep...
Portable Amaya 10.1 Size: 9.4 MB
Product Overview & Details:
A complete web browsing and authoring environment and comes equipped with a WYSIWYG style of interface
Amaya is a Web editor, i.e. a tool used to create and update documents directly on the Web. Browsing features are seamlessly integrated with the editing and remote access features in a uniform environment. This follows the original vision of the Web as a space for collaboration and not just a one-way publishing medium.
Work on Amaya started at W3C in 1996 to showcase Web technologies in a fully-featured Web client. The main motivation for developing Amaya was to provide a framework that can integrate as many W3C technologies as possible. It is used to demonstrate these technologies in action while taking advantage of their combination in a single, consistent environment.
Amaya first started as an HTML + CSS style sheets editing software. Since that time it was extended to support XML and an increasing number of XML applications such as the XHTML family, MathML, and SVG. It allows all those vocabularies to be edited simultaneously in compound documents.
What's New in This Release:
• New features
• Redesign of the user interface: new toolbars, palettes, panels
• A contextual menu provides navigation and editing commands.
• Within a template instance, the contextual menu allows one to insert and append template components
• Tools can be displayed on the left, or on the right, or custumized tool by tool
• There are now two editing modes: tthe word processing mode (called Text mode) or the XML editing mode (called XML). A button allows one to switch the mode quickly.
• On/Off buttons or entries can be used to go in/out of an inline element.
• For example you click strong, enter the strong text, then click strong to close the element.
• Insert and Append commands must be used to insert before and after the selected structure element
• First implementation of Amaya themes
• Possibility to change tabs order or to display two documents side by side
• There is now an icon in each tab area to close it (not available on mac)
• The application now doesn't close when the last tab is closed
• New XHTML document allows one to create a simple document or a template instance
• Save As allows one to save without template when the document is a template instance
• The File menu gives now access to the list of recent open documents
• There is now a command Select All
• Amaya proposes new options when a table, an image or an object are created
• The links view display all elements with an id attribute as they are potential targets of a link
• Class attributes are now displayed in the status bar
• New management of the selection within tables
• Reconfiguration of menus
• Profiles for customization of the user interface
• Bug fixes
• Set the environment variable G_SLICE="always-malloc" to prevent a crash on new Linux platforms (the crash occurs as soon as a dialog is displayed)
• A reference to the current page now moves to the top of page
• Amaya generated an explicit lang="en" attribute when an element of an English document is copied and pasted into a French document
• "Preserve Lines When Pasting" didn't work correctly in MacOS X
• The Preferences dialog didn't display correctly
• In dialogs, buttons that clear an URI are now displayed close to the URI
• It's now possible to delete a link with the Link dialog
• Maps areas could be lost
• The CSS parser now detects the BOM character
• Large background images could crash the application on Windows
• When changing or deleting the same attribute for several contiguous elements, only the first element in the set has the change/deletion applied.
• Avoid several concurrent download of a document
• Dialogs are now displayed at the current cursor position
• Amaya didn't complain and could generate invalid markup for an Xhtml Strict or Basic document when an element was not inside a block element.
• On MacOS X, the menu items Copy/Cut/Paste were disabled after having double-clicked a file in the file browser.
• Fix a problem with CSS background images loading.
-----------------------------------
Try:
Portable Amaya 10.1 Size: 9.4 MB
http://rapidshare.com/files/136084984/Amaya_10.1.rar
It's far better than "Komposer" in the long run however the learning curve is rather steep...
Portable Amaya 10.1 Size: 9.4 MB
Product Overview & Details:
A complete web browsing and authoring environment and comes equipped with a WYSIWYG style of interface
Amaya is a Web editor, i.e. a tool used to create and update documents directly on the Web. Browsing features are seamlessly integrated with the editing and remote access features in a uniform environment. This follows the original vision of the Web as a space for collaboration and not just a one-way publishing medium.
Work on Amaya started at W3C in 1996 to showcase Web technologies in a fully-featured Web client. The main motivation for developing Amaya was to provide a framework that can integrate as many W3C technologies as possible. It is used to demonstrate these technologies in action while taking advantage of their combination in a single, consistent environment.
Amaya first started as an HTML + CSS style sheets editing software. Since that time it was extended to support XML and an increasing number of XML applications such as the XHTML family, MathML, and SVG. It allows all those vocabularies to be edited simultaneously in compound documents.
What's New in This Release:
• New features
• Redesign of the user interface: new toolbars, palettes, panels
• A contextual menu provides navigation and editing commands.
• Within a template instance, the contextual menu allows one to insert and append template components
• Tools can be displayed on the left, or on the right, or custumized tool by tool
• There are now two editing modes: tthe word processing mode (called Text mode) or the XML editing mode (called XML). A button allows one to switch the mode quickly.
• On/Off buttons or entries can be used to go in/out of an inline element.
• For example you click strong, enter the strong text, then click strong to close the element.
• Insert and Append commands must be used to insert before and after the selected structure element
• First implementation of Amaya themes
• Possibility to change tabs order or to display two documents side by side
• There is now an icon in each tab area to close it (not available on mac)
• The application now doesn't close when the last tab is closed
• New XHTML document allows one to create a simple document or a template instance
• Save As allows one to save without template when the document is a template instance
• The File menu gives now access to the list of recent open documents
• There is now a command Select All
• Amaya proposes new options when a table, an image or an object are created
• The links view display all elements with an id attribute as they are potential targets of a link
• Class attributes are now displayed in the status bar
• New management of the selection within tables
• Reconfiguration of menus
• Profiles for customization of the user interface
• Bug fixes
• Set the environment variable G_SLICE="always-malloc" to prevent a crash on new Linux platforms (the crash occurs as soon as a dialog is displayed)
• A reference to the current page now moves to the top of page
• Amaya generated an explicit lang="en" attribute when an element of an English document is copied and pasted into a French document
• "Preserve Lines When Pasting" didn't work correctly in MacOS X
• The Preferences dialog didn't display correctly
• In dialogs, buttons that clear an URI are now displayed close to the URI
• It's now possible to delete a link with the Link dialog
• Maps areas could be lost
• The CSS parser now detects the BOM character
• Large background images could crash the application on Windows
• When changing or deleting the same attribute for several contiguous elements, only the first element in the set has the change/deletion applied.
• Avoid several concurrent download of a document
• Dialogs are now displayed at the current cursor position
• Amaya didn't complain and could generate invalid markup for an Xhtml Strict or Basic document when an element was not inside a block element.
• On MacOS X, the menu items Copy/Cut/Paste were disabled after having double-clicked a file in the file browser.
• Fix a problem with CSS background images loading.
-----------------------------------
Andre wrote:Dan - thanks for that. I remembered OffByOne from a couple years ago when I went in quest for the ultimate light weight browser. The limitations of page rendering is a problem, though.
I did find something - Amaya:
http://www.w3.org/Amaya/Amaya.html
There is a Thinstall version (i.e. fully portable) available for free here:
http://www.thindownload.com/app-download/25/Amaya
Create a folder called "Thinstall" in the same directory. The virtual reg entires as well as your preferences will be written there.
Re: Portable Browers: Fully Offline Mode Possible?
Do you have a software firewall? What IP is it trying to access?
It may be the inbuilt software updater checking for an update, have you turned this off?
It may be the inbuilt software updater checking for an update, have you turned this off?