[CLUE-Tech] Enthusiasm for Linux

[Chuck Downing]

Jed,

Thanks for your response.  Please see below.

On Monday 27 October 2003 01:24 pm, Jed S. Baer wrote:
> 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.
>

With Libranet 2.8/Debian 2.4.20, pon and diald respond only every other time 
(God knows why?).  When this happens, Pan continues to say that there is no 
connection.  To get Pan to recognize the connection, I must quit and restart, 
which causes all of the flagged messages to be reset.  And around and around 
she goes, nobody knows...

> 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.

The problem is intertwined.  The ISP which does Usenet also charges by the 
hour.  I have only one phone line to the house, which I share with my live-in 
spouse.  Even if I manually shut down the connection, Pan doesn't recognize 
it when I reconnect.  I can't tell where to start with bug reports, etc., 
because it's not clear whether the problem is with Pan, Libranet, Debian, or 
me.

Yes, I am up tight about this, because the newsreading problem is one of only 
two or three which are preventing me from completely chucking Windoze for all 
my routine work.
>
> jed

-- 
Chuck Downing
Leadville, Colorado