Topic: Dialup question: how to disable automatic dialup after reboo

[Pieter Links]

Hello,

(This message was posted before on the other forum, but I didn't got any response).

Thanks for e-smith server/gateway/firewall. It's a very good product.

After the installation of e-smith (currnet version) I had problems with my dialup connection, but I've found the solution in this phorum (message from Jaime jnebrera_AT_jazzfree.com) dated 07-31-01). Thanks.

I have also installed the dialmon RPM (The Linux DialD monitor v0., to control the diald-deamon from a Windows client machine (for example to stop the connection or completely block internet access). See http://www.quaking.demon.co.uk/dialmon.html

But still one big question remains: how can I disable automatic dialup after reboot?

The configuration is like this: e-smith server/gateway connected with dialup modem to normal telephone line, serving some other PC's with Windows 9x. The Win-systems are shut down at the end of the day, and the e-smith server also. But when at morning the e-smith server is switched on and the system is loaded, it does a dialup, even with no clients connected, to listen on the internet (to many nameservers). I have configured a domainname, but (because of dialup) receive a dynamic IP from my ISP.

How can I stop this automatic dialup, until I want to access the internet (manually)? I do NOT want to propagate my (temporary) IP to the nameservers, because I don't have a registered domain name.

I have tried the contributed e-smith-isp package, but that didn't work right, and disabled the dialmon-deamon.

BTW To make a rescue CD (with the newest versions of the rpm's and some altered config files) I want to include the dialmon rpm. How can I include it in the automatic installation (to put it in the directory with the other rpm's is not enough I guess)?

Thanks a lot for your answers.

Pieter

[Charlie Brady]

Pieter Links wrote:

> The configuration is like this: e-smith server/gateway
> connected with dialup modem to normal telephone line, serving
> some other PC's with Windows 9x. The Win-systems are shut
> down at the end of the day, and the e-smith server also.

Have you considered leaving the e-smith server powered up? That would solve your problem.

> But
> when at morning the e-smith server is switched on and the
> system is loaded, it does a dialup, even with no clients
> connected, to listen on the internet (to many nameservers).

That is the way that the BIND name server program is designed to operate, and there is no option to change that behaviour. If this really bothers you, you could try disconnecting the modem from the wall socket until after you power up the server.

Charlie

[Pieter Links]

Hello Charlie,

> Have you considered leaving the e-smith server powered up? That would solve
> your problem.

Surely, that would be the best solution, but the current policy is switching off at the end of the day (about 5:00 PM). At the moment there is no UPS available (will probably be there in the future .....), so I do not dare to let the power on; a powerfailure of 1/5 second is enough to reset a PC (I have seen it before and lost an important Microstation drawing in Linux).

> That is the way that the BIND name server program is designed to operate,
> and there is no option to change that behaviour. If this really bothers you, you
> could try disconnecting the modem from the wall socket until after you power up
> the server.

Disconnecting the telephone line is the most efficient way, although you can prohibit the diald-deamon to call out with the dialmon-deamon (but you'll have to be fast to press the button). But has it something to do with the IP-change event? When you log in at your ISP and get a dynamic IP, this is not valid anymore after disconnection. Why should a new IP be demanded (the old one is stored in the configuration records, although not valid) if you start e-smith? It can work very well with the recorded old one.

Thanks for your replies,

Pieter

[Pieter Links]

Hello,

Finally I've found the solution to disable the automatic dialup at startup of the e-smith-system.
When dialmon is installed, there is a named pipe which controls the deamon (I guess the clients use this). It is located in /tmp and called dialmon.stat
So put somewhere in the file rc.local the phrase

   echo B > /tmp/dialmon.stat

and dialmon enters 'blocked' mode (diald can't dialup unless you put dialmon in 'normal' mode). Found in the man-page of dialmon (but I did't know how to use named pipes, it has taken a lot of time to find the right manual).

Greetings from Belgium,

Pieter Links

[Peter Groom]

Apologies if this is obvious to everyone except me.

I can run dialmon on the server, and dialmon client on a W98 machine and all works fine. However when the server is re-booted I find that the dialmon daemon is no longer operating. Do I need to put an instruction to start the daemon into a script so that it always starts when the server boots up?

What script do I need to edit, and what do I need to add? I'd hate to get this wrong. My server works fine just now and I don't want to break it!