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List:       kde-devel
Subject:    Re: feature idea - feedback wanted
From:       Carlo Wood <carlo () runaway ! xs4all ! nl>
Date:       1999-02-13 14:00:51
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| 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

Great idea.

The possibilities for such a hook would be enormous, which is why
you should make it very flexible: Not throwing in too much special
things.

The basic idea, letting KDE applications know if you're online,
can be seperated from everything else.

There are two approaches:

1. Let KDE applications poll another application to find out if
   you're online or not (read: If you want them to (try) and
   use the internet).
2. Signify KDE applications that registered, that you went
   on/off line.

I almost proposed 1. a few days ago! (which is why I think this is
a great idea ;) heheh); but you're idea is better.  Or maybe we
should do both and let the KDE applications choose.

About what means "on-line": It can mean that ppp is up or down,
but it can also mean that ISDN is up or down.

If you have dial on demand with ISDN then one might not want
an application with a low priority (like sending E-mail) to
dial in - while other applications should (a browser).

Moreover, you might be running an internal network, so the
"network" is up partly, and certain net.masks should be
handled differently.

Masquerading is another common situation: The ppp and ISDN
don't have to run on the machine that is running KDE.
This thing definitely need to be designed as if they run on
a different machine.

The most logical way imho, is to make an executable that must
be called to tell the KDE machine whether or not ppp, ISDN
and/or the (phone) line is up or down.

Assume this executable is called konline.
The following states might be incorporated:

konline ppp up
konline ppp down
konline dialondemand up
konline dialondemand down
konline hook up
konline hook down

where 'hook' is the hook of the phone ;).

Applications of low priority then could for instance
decide not to dial out when "dialondemand up" and "hook down".

One more thing.  In order to allow these low priority applications
to work smoothly, some kind of handshaking is needed; otherwise
it would be possible that (for instance) ISDN goes down *immedeately*
followed by a dial-in due to a small delay in passing the information
to the KDE applications.

In other words: It seems better for the 'low priority' applications
to poll down to the real "firewall": Can I use internet now?
And if the firewall is still online it should answer yes and not
hang up for at least a few seconds.

-- 
 Carlo Wood  <carlo@runaway.xs4all.nl>

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