I had an issue with the proposed solutions, using lookup
does not always return the expected value.
This is due to DNS caching, the value of the call is cached and intead of doing a proper call on the next try it gives back the cached value. Of course this is an issue here as it means if you lose connectivity and call lookup
it could still return the cached value as if you had internet, and conversely, if you reconnect your internet after lookup
returned null it will still return null for the duration of the cache, which can be a few minutes, even if you do have internet now.
TL;DR: lookup
returning something does not necessarily mean you have internet, and it not returning anything does not necessarily mean you don't have internet. It is not reliable.
I implemented the following solution by taking inspiration from the data_connection_checker
plugin:
/// If any of the pings returns true then you have internet (for sure). If none do, you probably don't.
Future<bool> _checkInternetAccess() {
/// We use a mix of IPV4 and IPV6 here in case some networks only accept one of the types.
/// Only tested with an IPV4 only network so far (I don't have access to an IPV6 network).
final List<InternetAddress> dnss = [
InternetAddress('8.8.8.8', type: InternetAddressType.IPv4), // Google
InternetAddress('2001:4860:4860::8888', type: InternetAddressType.IPv6), // Google
InternetAddress('1.1.1.1', type: InternetAddressType.IPv4), // CloudFlare
InternetAddress('2606:4700:4700::1111', type: InternetAddressType.IPv6), // CloudFlare
InternetAddress('208.67.222.222', type: InternetAddressType.IPv4), // OpenDNS
InternetAddress('2620:0:ccc::2', type: InternetAddressType.IPv6), // OpenDNS
InternetAddress('180.76.76.76', type: InternetAddressType.IPv4), // Baidu
InternetAddress('2400:da00::6666', type: InternetAddressType.IPv6), // Baidu
];
final Completer<bool> completer = Completer<bool>();
int callsReturned = 0;
void onCallReturned(bool isAlive) {
if (completer.isCompleted) return;
if (isAlive) {
completer.complete(true);
} else {
callsReturned++;
if (callsReturned >= dnss.length) {
completer.complete(false);
}
}
}
dnss.forEach((dns) => _pingDns(dns).then(onCallReturned));
return completer.future;
}
Future<bool> _pingDns(InternetAddress dnsAddress) async {
const int dnsPort = 53;
const Duration timeout = Duration(seconds: 3);
Socket socket;
try {
socket = await Socket.connect(dnsAddress, dnsPort, timeout: timeout);
socket?.destroy();
return true;
} on SocketException {
socket?.destroy();
}
return false;
}
The call to _checkInternetAccess
takes at most a duration of timeout
to complete (3 seconds here), and if we can reach any of the DNS it will complete as soon as the first one is reached, without waiting for the others (as reaching one is enough to know you have internet). All the calls to _pingDns
are done in parallel.
It seems to work well on an IPV4 network, and when I can't test it on an IPV6 network (I don't have access to one) I think it should still work. It also works on release mode builds, but I yet have to submit my app to Apple to see if they find any issue with this solution.
It should also work in most countries (including China), if it does not work in one you can add a DNS to the list that is accessible from your target country.