Fwd: Daemon for managing dialup internetconnections now

[Waldo Bastian <bastian ens ascom ch>]

(CC'ed to kde-devel)

Hi GNOME-ppl!

This might be an area where it would be nice to cooperate.

I believe this issue has once been mentioned on the GNOME list 
as well.

The problem is that application don't have an easy way to get
a network connection to the internet and that they don't have
an easy way to get a notification when a connection becomes
available or when it goes down.

The idea is to have a daemon (CORBA service?) to handle this.
There are two issues which are important to standardize on:

1) How do you configure the daemon, e.g. how do you tell which
method should be used for building a connection with the
internet? How do you tell the daemon a permanent connection
with the internet exists?

2) How do applications access the daemon. Should a CORBA interface
be available? (I think there should) Should there be another
interface as well? (For programs that don't want to link to
CORBA)

Both projects could share the same daemon but this is not
strictly necassery as long as we can agree on common interfaces.

Looking forward to a succesfull cooperation,

Waldo Bastian
bastian@kde.org

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: Daemon for managing dialup internetconnections now
Date: Thu, 24 Jun 1999 14:46:21 +0200
From: Matt Koss <koss@napri.sk>
To: kde-devel@kde.org

On ©t, 24 jún 1999, Bjoern.Kahl wrote:
>Hallo !
>
>  I am the one, who wrote about a Connection-Manager 5 weeks ago.
>  (1999-05-15 according to kde-devel-list-archive)
> 
>
>  After a closer look on what I have had at that time, I decided to
>  rewrite it from scratch. It took me more time than I expected, but
>  now it's done.
>
>  I have successfully uploaded the whole stuff to my homepage at
>  <http://home.netsurf.de/bjoern.kahl/netmgr/index2.html>
>  but I don't think it's the right place. Perhaps it can move to
>  kdenetworks.
>
>  The software itself functions well, the documentation is still
>  incomplete and a mixture of English (most parts) and a few lines
>  German. Just have a look. Especially I am interested in your
>  opinion about the client-api.

Hi,

as you might know, I have started some work on ConnectionWatcher 
myself and Iwould like to know some things about your program.

How does the user specify the type of the connection ?
How does your program starts / stops connection ?
Is it possible to set that the program will use e.g. kppp or kisdn for
connecting ?

My idea was to create a general Connection Watcher with a CORBA interface.
Apps like kmail, konqueror, caitoo or icq clients would then only connect to the CORBA signal and they would get info
when connected / disconnected.
Interface definition would also contain methods for connecting and
disconnecting.

I have started some work on it using the code from Caitoo, and also created a kcm module for general configuration (
type of connection,
time interval ).
Dialog would also contain a preferred app for connecting ( this would require some cooperation on kppp / kisdn side ).

I am not saying that we need to use the code from Caitoo ( taken from ifconfig), if you NetworkManager works ok.
I just hope that the functionality will be similar.

    Ciao

		Matt

>
>
>  Short description:
>
>  (see: <http://home.netsurf.de/bjoern.kahl/netmgr/index2.html> )
>  The NetworkManager (NetMgr) is a client-server-system written in
>  C. Its main purpose is to controll a dialup internetconnection
>  so that multiple users (or programmes) can share one physical
>  link with eachother without interfering with eachother (like one
>  brings the link down, while the other one still wants to use it).
>  It provides its functionality via a link library. This library
>  contains six functions, allowing a programme to register with
>  the server, request the internetlink to come up or down, and to
>  query the server about the status of the internet link.
>
>  Just have a look, and let me know, what you think about it.
>
>
>  Bjoern
>
>-- 
>+-------------------------------------------------------------+
>| Björn Kahl       +++   <bjoern@hp1.ang-physik.uni-kiel.de>  |
>| Raum :  II 204   +++   Tel. +49 431 880 3934                |
>| Institut für Experimentelle und Angewandte Physik, Uni Kiel |
>+-------------------------------------------------------------+
-- 
Matej Koss	e-mail: koss@napri.sk
Kosice		 ICQ# : 19344305
Slovakia