The 03.06.27 at 23:05, Constant Brouerius van Nidek wrote:
I am using Gkrellm in order to see if any activity is going on on my modem during the connection. Kinternet is for me also an indication that the connection is working.
I call wvdial directly from an xterm, so I see the output like this: --> Modem initialized. --> Dialing Teleline . --> Sending: ATDT908200290 --> Waiting for carrier. ATDT908200290 CONNECT 50666/ARQ/V90/LAPM/V42BIS --> Carrier detected. Starting PPP immediately. --> Starting pppd at Wed Jul 2 10:53:08 2003 --> pid of pppd: 2376 --> pppd: Using interface ppp0 --> pppd: local IP address 81.41.201.153 --> pppd: remote IP address 80.58.197.105 --> pppd: Script /etc/ppp/ip-up run successful --> Default route Ok. --> Nameserver (DNS) Ok. --> Connected... Press Ctrl-C to disconnect --> pppd: Terminating connection due to lack of activity. --> pppd: Connect time 16.3 minutes. --> Disconnecting at Wed Jul 2 11:09:28 2003 You see the speed of the connection: 50666 bps, which is not bad. Sometimes it goes below 33000 (not V90, then). You can also check some log files. pppd logs to "/var/log/localmessages" (I forgot the exact number). The firewall goes to "/var/log/warn". Mail logs to "/var/log/mail", and in my case, also to "/var/log/mail.debug". If the quality decreases after connection is established, I'm not sure I would see it there. Perhaps increasing verbosity (syslog debug level).
Are there other possibilities to keep an eye on what is going on during a session with my isp?
I keep an eye on the mail logs on an xterm with tailf (not "less", nor "tail").. For line noise, I would check your cabling (internal, inside your home). Look for cable connections: the best should be soldered, well insulated, and dry. One of those connections caused me on a very wet day (85% humidity) to loose connectivity. I could hear the noise just by unhooking the phone - after repairing, I got a very clear dial tone. Also, good quality plugs are gold plated: if not, they could oxidize. As for shielding the phone line... not really an issue, unless you are inside a industrial building with huge motors or electric ovens. See, the line to the central exchange can be kilometers long, so a few shielded meters will not make that big difference :-)
From some Dos email programs I am still using I see all email passing by on the screen and see when the download is stuttering. I would like to have something analogue on SuSE.
I see that on "/var/log/mail.debug", assuming you use "fetchmail" with the "-v" option. I think SuSE defaults to placing all that info in "/var/log/mail". I modified "/etc/syslog.conf" file like this: #mail.* -/var/log/mail mail.notice -/var/log/mail mail.debug -/var/log/mail.debug The "mail.debug" file can grow very large, so logrotate has to be adjusted.
Just seeing my email moving in or out. I am now using postfix and fetchmail but they work somewhere in the background and I have no chance of seeing what is happening.
Almost everything is logged :-) -- Cheers, Carlos Robinson