[CLUE-Tech] Enthusiasm for Linux

[Jed S. Baer]

On Mon, 27 Oct 2003 10:01:50 -0700
Chuck Downing <chuckdowning at earthlink.net> wrote:

> > Can you do this in Windows?
> 
> Yep.  Forte's Agent newsreader dials on demand and lets me "mark" random
> 
> messages in any newsgroup I'm subscribed to, then downloads them all at
> once on demand.  If I setup the timing on the modem correctly, I can
> even close the connection while its idle.

OK, I admit I haven't tried this under Linux, but I'm certain it's
possible using diald and Pan, or pppd and Pan. Jeff had mentioned diald,
and I posted earlier that I thought it was a configuration item for pppd,
but after reading Jeff's post, I'm 99% certain that he's correct, and I
wasn't. But nonetheless, it's absolutely true that Linux dialer/ppp
software can be setup for dial-on-demand.

Regarding idle timeout, the pppd program will do this. You can put an
"idle" directive in the /etc/ppp/options file.

Pan will let you mark messages, and download them in bulk.

I realize that this isn't *exactly* the same as Agent invoking Windoze
dialup networking for you, but the end result is the same, at least for
reading news. There are a few downsides to the dial-on-demand feature in
Linux, as it works by detecting an IP traffic attempt on the ppp device,
and making the connection if it isn't already up. This can be an issue if,
for example, you have your web browser sitting idle on a page with a
refresh tag, and have hung up the connection, not intending to reuse it.
Many online newspapers use the refresh tag (which I find highly annoying).

I hate to sound harsh, but I think that if you're disappointed with
newsreading on Linux over just this one issue, I think you're being overly
critical. On my machine, bringing dialup ppp up/down are one-click
operations, so not having Pan (or Sylpheed, or Galeon, or Mozilla, or ...
) dial the phone for me is just not an issue. And I don't think it should
be for anyone else.

jed
-- 
... it is poor civic hygiene to install technologies that could someday
facilitate a police state. -- Bruce Schneier