Topic: dialup log file ? & linux hunger !

[nick]

Hi All

Question 1
I plan to use a dialup modem, and my telephone company (Telstra) charges me for every call. I would like to know if the e-smith server has a log file for the total dial connections it has made. I want to keep tabs on all the local calls made to my ISP and try to keep Telstra honest.   the phone line is only used for the internet.
I couldn’t find any previous answers regarding this, in this forum.

Question 2
In the e-smith server  /bin and /sbin there are a great deal of small applications and commands. Where on the web can I find out what they all do.  Eg: cp  cpio --  awk    etc
e-smith has made me hungry for more linux knowledge. I want to pig out.

I did my first backup of 4.1.1 and a new install of 4.1.2 last night ...smooooooth !!  20 mins and I was back on line. e-smith is so smoooth.

[Scott Smith]

nick wrote:
> Question 2
> In the e-smith server  /bin and /sbin there are a great deal
> of small applications and commands. Where on the web can I
> find out what they all do.  Eg: cp  cpio --  awk    etc
> e-smith has made me hungry for more linux knowledge. I want
> to pig out.

man cpio
man awk
etc

Not all commands have man pages, but sometimes you can get brief help using

somecmd --help

or if that doesn't work

somecmd -h

Even if there is no help option per se, if the --help or -h is not a valid option you'll sometimes get a help message of some kind along with the error message.

[Shad L. Lords]

nick wrote:
> Question 1
> I plan to use a dialup modem, and my telephone company
> (Telstra) charges me for every call. I would like to know if
> the e-smith server has a log file for the total dial connections
> it has made. I want to keep tabs on all the local calls made
> to my ISP and try to keep Telstra honest.   the phone line
> is only used for the internet.

I believe there is a log of attempts in /var/log/diald/accounting.log

[nick]

Thanks for the quick response
You all have been a great help.
The accounting. log file is very interesting.

regards
Nick

I’m spreading the word and the word is...... e-smith.

[Jeff Fox]

The book, "Linux in a Nutshell" is a great resource for Linux commands.

To really learn the Linux OS then I suggest you install a 'general use' distribution like RedHat, Mandrake, Debian, Slackware, etc.
If you are a Linux newbie then try RedHat or Mandrake first. Or Slack if you are wanting more of a challenge. It will be harder, but you'll probably learn more. IMHO Debian is a hard climb, but it's  supposed to be the hot-rod power-tool.

You can install it on a 486 or low end pentium and still have enough power to learn the OS. If you want to use it as a desktop OS then you'll need more RAM and CPU.

If you are using e-smith for anything but a test box then I strongly suggest that you do this. You don't want to fry your production box playing around with Linux.

[Charlie Brady]

nick wrote:

> The accounting. log file is very interesting.

Be very, very careful using dial-on-demand in a pay per call situation, as you are in with Telstra. Unless you are very sure that you carefully control your internet usage, then you should consider using a continuous connection strategy (either during business hours, or all the time). Telstra call charges can be much higher than an unlimited time Internet connection.

Regards

Charlie

[nick]

Jeff & charlie, thanks for the tips
Regrads
Nick

I'm spreading the word and the word is...... e-smith