Google.com and clients1.google.com/generate_204

Question

I was looking into google.com\'s Net activity in firebug just because I was curious and noticed a request was returning \"204 No Content.\"

It turns out that a 204 N

Answer 1

In the event that Chrome detects SSL connection timeouts, certificate errors, or other network issues that might be caused by a captive portal (a hotel's WiFi network, for instance), Chrome will make a cookieless request to http://www.gstatic.com/generate_204 and check the response code. If that request is redirected, Chrome will open the redirect target in a new tab on the assumption that it's a login page. Requests to the captive portal detection page are not logged.

Source: Google Chrome Privacy Whitepaper