I've noticed that there are a few loose in KDE that could be tied
neatly together. What I'm refering to are several KDE programs
that make assumptions about how you are connected to the internet
(dedicated vs. dialup, proxies, etc.).

What I was imagining is that there should be an object (maybe part of
kfm or kpanel, or maybe on it's own - I haven't thought that far yet)
that keeps track of whether the machine is online or not. This object
would present a kpanel docked icon (or similar) that the user would use
to trigger a dialup connection. The object would allow other programs
to register to be notified or executed before & after the connection is 
brought up or torn down. And, of course one program would be registered
to handle the actual making and breaking of the connection (ie. kppp,
masqdialer, diald-control, etc.)

So, take a program like kscd, which would want to connect to the CDDB
database when an unknown CD encountered. Under this scheme, it would
first check to see if the machine is already online, and if it isn't
it would then request that this object bring the connection up (and
there would be a confirmation dialog so the user has a chance to cancel
the operation).

If we take this idea further, there could be an "internet settings" (logical
extention to the current "Web Browser" settings) control panel that would 
provide a central place for proxy/firewall information. We could even get 
clever and provide compatability with Netscape's auto-proxy configuration 
files (it is just a javascript function that takes a URL and returns either 
the proxy name & port number or 'DIRECT' for no proxy required).

And for those with dedicates internet access or who want to manage their
dialups themselves, I'm imagining there would be a a global "I'm online
all the time" option that would effectivly revert all the applications
back to the current behavior.

Like the subject says, I'm just soliciting ideas and feedback.

Russ
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Russ Steffen
rsteffen@ia.net