[109] in comp.os.os2.announce archive
NEW RELEASE: Internet Connection Watchdog Utility version 1.1
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (nick@secant.com)
Sat Aug 26 12:07:18 1995
To: os2ann.DISCUSS@bloom-picayune.MIT.EDU
Date: Sat, 26 Aug 1995 08:13:54 GMT
From: nick@secant.com
Reply-To: nick@secant.com
Submitted by: Nick Knight (nick@secant.com)
Source: Secant Technolgies
Date received: 1995 August 25
Date posted: 1995 August 26
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE For more information:
AUGUST 24, 1995 http://www.secant.com
Internet Connection Watchdog Utility v1.1 - UPDATED!!!
======================================================
I've written a little utility that helps to keep an OS/2 SLIP or
PPP connection active. It's as flexible as I can imagine making it
and I'll even provide source code (read the docs that come with
it first) as long as not for resale.
The utility is distributed as icwatch.zip at 100k (sorry, large
IBM TCP/IP DLL included), You can ftp it from Secant's WWW Home
Page at http://www.secant.com. It's overviewed at the bottom of
that page, and ftp'able right from there, too.
This utility has managed to minimize Secant's down time to just
5 minutes every couple of days. Previously, if our connection would
somehow drop late at night or over the weekend, we would be down
for hours->days.
******************************************************************
* What's New *
******************************************************************
USING ICWATCH AS A CLIENT CONNECTION WATCHDOG
=============================================
We set up a machine to allow us to "dial in" to our network from
on-the-road or from home. The problem was that SLIP, once it
connects, doesn't automatically reset itself for the "next"
caller. IC Watch can now remedy this problem, too!
First, IC Watch should not be running without a connection
established. So, step one is to have the REXX file used to control
the "connect" ("autoans.cmd", for example) start ICWatch sometime
early in the handshaking process. This insures a reset if the
connection fails. You give ICWatch the IP address of the guest
connection, and a NEGATIVE delay time. The negative value tells
ICWatch it's being invoked "on demand" from a connection script; the
absolute value of this number is used as the delay interval.
ICWatch waits, then starts periodically pinging the given address.
If all pings fail, the "reslip" command is invoked after killing the
specified executable process ("Slip.exe", by default). In this
mode, ICWatch then exits, allowing the system to await the next
caller. NOTE that care must be taken within the REXX script to
check for timeouts and invalid values.
Change Log
==========
07/14/95 - v1.01 Modified pstat log parser to properly handle
non-SLIP.EXE executable names.
07/16/95 - v1.02 Removed incorrect "log parsing" error message.
07/20/95 - v1.03 The test for named EXE was case sensitive.
08/11/95 - v1.1 Minutes Delay can now be negative, causing a
wait of abs(delay), but telling icwatch to EXIT
after restarting slip. Great for invoking icwatch
from within a SLIP-server auto-answer slip (host
side slip connection for a dial-on connection).
Finished code to do process-id finding internally.
Left old code #def'd out, in case DosQProc() breaks
anytime in the future. New code does not require
pstat and does not parse a log or open files.
