🚀 go-pugleaf

On Thu, 02 Dec 1999 10:31:13 -0500, James Silverton
<jim.silverton@erols.com> wrote:
>I recently installed SuSE 6.2 in a dual boot arrangement using
>Bootmagic. For the immediate future, my connection with the Internet is
>going to be over a 56K modem with an ISP (Erols) whose contract has
>several months to run. Suggestions that I change ISPs would not be
>helpful but I need some advice and information. The ISP quite honestly
>says that it does not support Unix but has given me the only thing I
>really needed, the IP of their news server, without any problems.  I
>have found that wvdial works very well indeed to make a connection with
>the ISP but two things are apparent.
>
>Once wvdial starts pppd, I have no easy indication that the connection
>is still up other than hang-ups of, for example, Netscape or failures
>of ping. Second, my ISP negotiates  password "verification" and failure
>here is much more common than actual busy signals when dialing. Since
>wvdial will have started pppd before the process is complete, I do not
>have any indication of success or failure other than the hang-ups.
>Wvdial does not check password verification and pppd remains active
>even after a failure.

One way to do this is to watch /var/log/messages. In an xterm you can
run 'tail -f /var/log/messages'. Not pretty, but it works. There is also
an app called root-tail (sp?), that does this but writes it directly to
the root window (background). Kinda neat.

>In Windows dial-up networking, I can watch the process and immediately
>redial if verification fails. I am impressed by wvdial and would like to
>continue to use it but the verification failure and lack of a visual
>indication of connection are a pain. Does anyone have any suggestions
>for  a visual connection indicator since, AFAIK, such  a signal would
>solve both my problems?
>

Maybe there is some applet out there for this. In WindowMaker there is
wmppp. This has on-off buttons, yellow light for connecting, red for
dropped connection, and green for connected. It also has speed
indicator. You have to set this up to invoke a script/command of your
choosing. 

But I would think there should be a way to tweak pppd to solve the
problem. Maybe slow it down, to give it more time to authenticate. 

-- 
Hal B
hburgiss@bellsouth.net
--
            Linux helps those who help themselves