The "art" of properly managing dialup connections is dying as a result of always on connections which have really proliferated in the last 5 years or more.
diald is the original daemon for managing connections "on demand" - it has always been plagued by spurious dialouts caused by mainly MS software broadcasting packets which the diald daemon dteremined needed to go to the internet, and hence dialled up. There was a fiendishly comlpicated config file that determined what packets could and couldn't trigger the connection. pppd now has a dial on demand option all of its own (I believe it may have inherited some of the diald code) - see man pppd for information. There were also a whole slew of daemons that dialled under programmatic control (masqdialler, connectd, cannot remember the rest) - each box on the lan had a "client" which could request the connection up or down. There was an "OR" situation so if any client requested up, the line was up - so if A requested it to go up, and B then started browsing, B could hold the line up. Programs could also hold the line open like: connect uniquesessionname open sendmail -q connect uniquesessionname close In short, you probably want to look at the pppd diald option, and make sure that only those packets and programs and people that are allowed to may bring it up. On Thu, 17 Nov 2005 13:34:52 +1300 Stephen Irons wrote: > I tried the same route as you, but generally do not want to connect > always. I ended up using Gnome PPP. It is non included in the base > Ubuntu install; you have to download it from Universe (I think). It is > only a few 100k, if I remember correctly. > > Disable the modem connection under 'Network Settings'. > > Install GnomePPP. > > Connect using GnomePPP when you want to connect, and disconnect using > GnomePPP when you have finished. It 'just worked' for me. > > > > Actually, what I really want is more control over autodialling: > > 1. Generally, I want to be offline all the time. > > 2. The system should check for new email periodically (every 30 minutes > or 1 hour or so) even if the mail client is not running. I might like > this to fetch headers too, but probably not download the entire message. > Once all the accounts are checked, it can drop the connection after a > delay of 30s or 1 minute (unless something else is still using it). > > 3. Emails I write go into 'Outbox'. When I click 'Send and receive', it > should autodial, send my outbox and retrieve mail from all my accounts. > Once all is done, it can drop the connection after a short timeout > (unless something else is still using it). > > 4. The web browser should connect automatically. Once the entire page is > loaded, it should drop the connection after a longer timeout (maybe 2 or > 3 minutes) because I am probably going to go to another page. > > 5. The clock synchronisation must NEVER autoconnect. However, it should > schedule a resynchronisation periodically (once a day, perhaps), but it > will only do the synchronisation when something else connects to the > internet. This service will not keep the connection alive; even if > part-way through the synchronisation process, if it is the only service > using the internet, the connection will drop. > > Ideally, clock synchronisation would measure how much my clock drifts > compared to the time server and adjust itself to be more accurate over > time. It could then also change how often it has to synchronise to a > time server. > > 6. The system should check for software updates in the background. It > can piggyback on another connection, but will not dial out itself or > keep a connection open if it is the only thing still connected. Once a > list of updates is available, it should offer me the option of > downloading them in the background (piggybacking on other connections), > or keeping the connection option to download them all as quickly as > possible. Once all the updates are downloaded, the normal update > procedure applies. Or perhaps the system could apply the updates (with > permission) as they are download where possible. > > 7. No other service are allowed to auto connect, unless I specifically > give permission for them to do so. > > Now, is there a way to achieve all this under Ubuntu? I know that > Firefox and Thunderbird have 'offline' modes, but going online does not > seem to dial. Can I change this? Is there an email checker (something > like biff?) that is independent of any email client, but which can > download headers and pass them on to the email client itself? Can I set > different connection hold timeouts for different applications? Is there > the concept of notifying or starting an application when a connection is > made or lost or about to be lost? Does the system update service cache > partially downloaded files, or does it always start each file afresh if > the connection is lost unexpectedly? > > Stephen > > > > > > Matthew Whiting wrote: > > > Hi all, > > > > Wondering what would be the recommended way of controlling a dial-up > > connection with Ubuntu or similar? My modem works nicely but only when > > I can connect :-) Under 'Network Settings' if I set the Modem > > Connection to activated and select 'Set modem as default route to > > internet' it dials up when I start up my machine. Thats cool providing > > I want to connect to the net straight off. If I deselect the default > > route option I have a hard job consistently controlling the connection > > by activating/deactivating the Modem Connection. > > > > Would there be a better way to connect? I try using kppp but after > > clicking connect it doesn't really seem to do much. How could I better > > monitor what is actually going on behind the scenes? > > > > Cheers > > Matthew > > > > ======================================================================= > This email, including any attachments, is only for the intended > addressee. It is subject to copyright, is confidential and may be > the subject of legal or other privilege, none of which is waived or > lost by reason of this transmission. > If the receiver is not the intended addressee, please accept our > apologies, notify us by return, delete all copies and perform no > other act on the email. > Unfortunately, we cannot warrant that the email has not been > altered or corrupted during transmission. > ======================================================================= -- Nick Rout <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
